File photo. Representational.
Cape Town: South Africa's Koeberg Nuclear Power Station Unit 1 was taken offline early Thursday following a turbine trip, national power utility Eskom confirmed.
"Unit 1 was, safely and within procedure, taken offline just before 100 a.m. today following a turbine trip," Eskom said in a statement.
Eskom said there was no risk to employees, the public or the environment, and that Koeberg's protection and monitoring systems functioned as designed.
It added that the removal of Unit 1's capacity from the grid posed no risk to national electricity supply, as the utility had sufficient generation capacity available.
The cause of the turbine trip was under investigation, Eskom said, adding that it remained committed to transparency and would provide updates as new information became available.
Koeberg, about 27 km north of Cape Town, is Africa's only nuclear power station and uses seawater for cooling. Unit 2 has been offline for planned maintenance since April and is expected to return to service in September.
Koeberg's Unit 1 was last taken offline for major maintenance, which was completed in October 2025. Since then, the unit has operated reliably, with generation temporarily reduced to 50 percent on Aug. 21 as a precautionary measure due to seawater intake challenges linked to a sardine influx near the station's cooling water system, according to Eskom.
The unit's output was restored to 70 percent on Aug. 26, less than a day before the turbine trip.
