South African fuel supply contract for Westinghouse

Thursday, 3 December 2009

Westinghouse has been awarded a $30 million contract by South African utility Eskom to supply fuel for the Koeberg nuclear power plant near Cape Town between late 2011 and 2015.

 

Koeberg (Image: Eskom)

Under the contract, Westinghouse's Swedish subsidiary will supply three reloads of fuel for the Koeberg plant. The fuel will be produced at Westinghouse's fabrication facility in Västerås, Sweden.

 

Rita Bowser, regional vice president, Westinghouse Electric South Africa, commented: "We are pleased to be able continue to assist the Republic of South Africa in its ongoing and successful effort to generate the safe, clean and reliable electricity necessary to fuel continued economic growth."

 

The two 920 MWe reactors at Koeberg began operation in 1984 and 1985. The only power reactors in Africa, they provide 6% of South Africa's needs.

 

In March, French engineering group Alstom announced a $161 million contract, which will see new low-pressure turbines fitted at each power unit with this work carried out during a scheduled refuelling outage. Besides the 3.5% (some 65 MWe) boost in generating capacity resulting from the steam turbine improvements, the power plant will gain in stability and reliability while increasing its working life.