Koeberg reactor goes down

Eskom has asked the public to use electricity sparingly after one of its reactors at the Koeberg nuclear plant near Cape Town went down.

"The power system is extremely tight at present, particularly during the evening peak hours between 6pm and 9pm," the power utility said according to the Cape Times

It was unclear what had happened to the reactor but an official, who remained anonymous, said it had lost 900 megawatts of power and the fault was being investigated.

Koeberg provides six percent of the country's power and has been in operation since 1984, with a capacity of 1800MW.