South Africa’s sole nuclear power plant, already producing only partial output, was in a state of complete shutdown on Saturday after a further fault was detected.
Both units of the Koeberg nuclear power station in the Cape Peninsula were out of commission, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported.
Unit one was shut down following a detection of a suspected fault in the cooling system, after unit two had been shut down on Monday as a result of a technical fault.
The two units normally produce a total of 1 800 megawatts for South Africa’s already extremely strained electricity supply which sees regular power failures.
However, a spokesperson for the state-run Eskom power company said he did not foresee any immediate power cut as demand was usually low over weekends. – Sapa