Does anyone have a date for the decommissioning of Koeberg?

This is a reality since these plants don't last forever and for nuclear plants it's hellava expensive.

Quote

The government's agreed 2019 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) plans a 20 year life-extension for Koeberg to 2044, and a delayed nuclear new build programme with a scenario that may build new capacity after 2030.^[16]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koeberg_Nuclear_Power_Station#cite_note-wnn-20191018-16

I've spoken to someone that works there, the extension is well under way.  Most of it involves inspections of existing equipment rather than outright replacement.

On 2020/01/14 at 9:45 AM, Richard Mackay said:

 

Does anyone have a date for the decommissioning of Koeberg?

 

 

Looks like 2044, but according to some articles Koeberg is currently generating about 1900MW and than they wanted to increase capacity with another 2500MW before 2030 in South Africa, but how this could happen I don’t know? This might only happen after 2044 when Koeberg is decommissioned. 

I read about a interesting element called Thorium that could be used in nuclear power instead of Uranium. The next generation nuclear plants will probably be with Thorium reactors. Thorium will produce a cleaner form of energy than Uranium.

On 2020/01/14 at 7:08 PM, Robert van den Berg said:

Nothing wrong with that. If existing equipment in spec, no issue.

Like an old car, well maintained and all ok, then many more miles to be had

Most buildings have the same requirements.  For example a large building will typically have a design life of a 100 years or whatever when it is built.  That doesn't mean it falls apart at 100 years but maintenance increases exponentially.  Foundations can shift require extensive work, concrete wear needs to be evaluated, exposed rebar repaired, PVC & HDPE starts to degrade, underground wiring needs to be replaced, etc. etc.

The same is true of a nuclear reactor.  Radiation damages everything, so inspections will probably be made of everything to see how everything is holding up.

That said extending the life of a nuclear plant does involve either moving some of your spent fuel to dry cask storage or building more spent fuel pools.  I believe in this case they are opting for the latter.