Ailing power utility Eskom has warned it will have to ramp up load-shedding during the winter months.(Photo: David Harrison/M&G)
Lydia Petersen doesn’t sleep much. Cursed with insomnia, she spends many of her evenings trawling news websites.
That’s how, a week ago, she stumbled on media reports that an international technical services company, Jacobs Engineering, had been appointed to carry out modifications as part of a R20-billion contract to extend the life of Koeberg by 20 years.
Petersen, the spokesperson for nuclear watchdog group Koeberg Alert Alliance, nearly fell out of her chair.
“I was livid because we didn’t know about this. The concern is that we were alerted in the media about it. Due process has not been followed and the transparency is not there — and that is what is needed for the public,” she said.
Last week, Petersen and other civil society organisations issued a statement voicing their concern that the legal processes required to grant a licence for a life extension for South Africa’s only nuclear power plant had not been followed.
“What we are saying is the public has to be consulted,” she said. “The National Nuclear Regulator [NNR] has a mandate to protect the public. They are the oversight body.”
She said the independence of the NNR was being “called into question by allowing Eskom to ignore due process and make this announcement as if it’s a done deal”.
To operate beyond 2024, Eskom needs the approval of the NNR and for a new licence to be issued under a process described in new regulations on the long-term operation of nuclear installations that were published in March 2021.
This requires a notice in the Government Gazette as well as announcements in local newspapers so that the public can make comments for the NNR to take into account before making a decision.
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“However, it appears that this process has not been followed,” the statement read.
NNR spokesperson Gino Moonsamy said the regulator had received an application by Eskom to operate Koeberg beyond the current licensing basis and had accepted the application for “further processing”.
The NNR, he said, required Eskom to notify stakeholders and publish the application for public comment as soon as the public information document connected to the application had been accepted. This document is under review by the NNR.
“The public information document will provide the public with necessary information to make representations to the NNR,” Moonsamy said.
The NNR holds two stages of public participation when considering such matters.The first is publishing a notice and requesting public comment. After the notice and comment stage, it evaluates technical and administrative regulatory criteria to decide whether further public consultation is required. If that is the case, the regulator then uses “the most appropriate format” for further public consultation.
“In general, the way the government is doing its energy procurement is not transparent,” said Francesca de Gasparis, the executive director of the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute.
Parliament and the portfolio committee on mineral resources and energy should have oversight of decision-making for the extension of life of Koeberg “because it’s such a major decision point”, she said.
“There should at least be a transparent process of decision making for this issue. It is concerning … that we are seeing this level of secrecy, this level of not engaging with a rigour that can be applied to energy decision-making.
“We can see a reluctance by the government dragging its heels around renewable energy, which is so much more cost effective, so much quicker to install, so much less risky and less toxic. So why are making these huge decisions that are going to be financial commitments for a long time to come around nuclear energy without actually weighing the pros and cons and bringing it to public scrutiny and into the public realm?”
South Africa has a poor track record on public consultation on nuclear issues, said Jo-Ansie van Wyk, a political sciences professor at Unisa, adding that there was a need for public education on nuclear energy.
“There needs to be a preparation of the public for this public participation. There is a record of the government issuing these consultation documents or making the programme available and there is such a short time available for stakeholders and alliances to meet people,” she said.
“The government should come clean on what the timelines are and where the money will come from. We have an energy crisis and whether nuclear energy will be the panacea under current circumstances.”
Koeberg was constructed in the 1970s with the design and site decided on during the 1960s.
“The safety of the plant must be looked at again in the light of the possible effects of climate change, as well as new data and methods for estimating seismic risk,” said Petersen. “There are new safety systems required for all new nuclear plants, and any life extension should specify which of these must be retro-fitted to the Koeberg plant to make it up to the safety standards of modern plants.”
Moonsamy said the NNR’s regulatory requirements are aligned to International Atomic Energy Agency standards and best practice: “Furthermore, the NNR has various bilateral cooperation agreements with international counterparts including the ASN [Nuclear Safety Authority] from France. These agreements allow the NNR to have access to cutting edge technical information and best practices from international counterparts.”
Eskom said the replacement of Koeberg’s six steam generators was part of the plant’s ongoing nuclear safety inspection and age management programme aimed at ensuring that the plant remains safe for operation at any given time. The installation is scheduled during a planned outage in January next year, with the overall project due for completion by 2024.
Moonsamy said Eskom did not require regulatory approval from the NNR to enter into contracts with service providers. The state power utility said the contract awarded to General Electric’s main and subcontractors was “above board. It was legally approved by the Eskom board and is in full compliance with Public Finance Management Act, treasury guidelines and organisational commercial and contractual policy guidelines.”
Eskom said the nuclear energy company, Framatome, was the main contractor appointed legally by Eskom to design, manufacture and install the replacement six steam generators for Koeberg’s units 1 and 2.
“As a result of the engineering analyses and system verification associated with the steam generator replacement, a number of hardware modifications on the balance of plant [BOP] are required to be undertaken,” it said.
Eskom appointed General Electric to perform the bulk of the BOP hardware changes, with a portion of these to be done by Jacobs Engineering and other contractors, including local companies.
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