Turbine trip forces Eskom to take Koeberg Unit 1 offline

Koeberg Nuclear Power Station's Unit 1 was taken offline in the early hours of Thursday morning following a turbine trip, Eskom has confirmed, stressing that the shutdown was carried out safely and in line with standard procedure.

The power utility said the unit was taken offline just before 1am, with the cause of the turbine trip now under investigation.

Eskom said it remained committed to keeping the public informed and would provide further updates as they became available. Plant monitoring showed that operating conditions stayed stable throughout the incident, the utility added.

Eskom was emphatic that nuclear safety had not been compromised at any point, and that there was no risk to staff, the public or the surrounding environment. It said Koeberg's protection and monitoring systems had worked exactly as intended, keeping the unit safe throughout.

The utility also moved to reassure the public on the wider implications for electricity supply, saying the loss of Unit 1's output posed no threat to the national grid. It said it had enough generation capacity on hand to keep the system stable and secure.

Providing some background, Eskom noted that Unit 1 had last been taken offline for major maintenance work completed in October 2025, and had operated reliably since then. Its output was briefly reduced in August this year as a precautionary step, after a large influx of sardines near the plant affected the seawater intake used for its cooling system.

Eskom noted that the same period saw a rise in sardine deaths reported more broadly along the Southwestern and West Coast.

The utility said this matter remains under investigation by an inter-agency team led by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, and that there is currently no evidence linking those incidents to Koeberg's operations.