Eskom held a media briefing on Sunday to clarify four recent radiation-related incidents at Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. The events occurred during a planned maintenance outage of Unit 2 and involved airborne contamination from steam generator testing. Officials stressed that no material was released beyond the plant and there was no danger to the public.
The incidents took place on 30 June, 2 July, 7 July and 16 July while Koeberg’s Unit 2 reactor was offline. Eskom chief nuclear officer Velaphi Ntuli said the events stemmed from small quantities of radioactive corrosion products, mainly cobalt-58, that became airborne during eddy-current testing of steam generators.
Ventilation units experienced power-supply failures on two occasions, leading to precautionary evacuations of workers. The highest radiation dose recorded among staff was 20 microsieverts, well below the annual occupational limit of 20,000 microsieverts.
National Nuclear Regulator spokesperson Gino Moonsamy confirmed the events were not classified as a nuclear emergency and posed no safety impact on the public. Eskom stated the outage remains on schedule for completion in November 2026.
Energy analysts Chris Yelland and Hartmut Winkler said the incidents did not endanger the public but highlighted concerns over repeated equipment failures during the refurbishment. Anti-nuclear activist Peter Becker called for closer scrutiny of operational discipline at the plant.
