A nuclear reactor at Koeberg in Cape Town was restored on Tuesday after it automatically shut down on Sunday night, Eskom said.
”The power level will be increased during the course of today [Tuesday] and the unit is expected to be back to the previous power level of 84% on Wednesday morning,” said spokesperson Tony Stott.
The reactor shut down due to a fault on the turbine control system, which has since been repaired, he said.
Eskom MD Jacob Maroga said no interruptions to power supply had been experienced while Koeberg Unit 2 was not generating electricity.
The station’s other reactor, Koeberg Unit 1, was running at full power and supply of electricity to the Cape was being augmented by Eskom’s ”peaking stations” during the time the reactor was down.
Stott said the incident was unusual in that it had shut the whole system down.
The two units supply about 50% of the Western Cape’s electricity needs and together produce about 1 800 megawatts if running at full power. — Sapa