Eskom tech team to review Koeberg incident

Eskom has assigned a technical team to review the recent exposure of 91 workers to radiation at the Koeberg nuclear power plant near Cape Town.

The technical team is expected to recommend steps to avoid a similar occurrence in the future, Eskom said in a statement late on Tuesday.

This follows this week's confirmation that a radiation contamination incident occurred almost a week and a half ago.

The workers, who were doing maintenance work at Koeberg, were evaluated to monitor their levels of radiation.

"The worse dose anyone had picked up was a half a percent of the annual allowable dose as set down by the National Nuclear Regulator," the utility said.

These levels of uptake are not seen as having any harmful effects to the health of people or animals, said the utility, which added that all the workers affected by the incident had already returned to work.

"The Koeberg management is satisfied that all the necessary precautions were taken and all procedures and regulations were adhered to. Action was immediately taken to protect workers and to reduce contamination levels to an absolute minimum," Eskom said.

While airborne radiation levels had returned to normal two days later, Eskom said close monitoring of the airborne conditions inside the reactor building continues to be in place.

"Any significant increase in airborne radiation levels will require a work stoppage and the evacuation of the reactor building," it said.

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