Power utility Eskom, struggling to meet demand in Africa's most developed economy, will pay about R200-million for casks for storing nuclear waste produced at the Koeberg nuclear power station after 2018. The seven new reinforced metal casks, supplied by US energy company Holtec International, are the first step in a three-phase project to create more storage space at Koeberg, Africa's only nuclear power plant, about 35km from Cape Town.Eskom, which frequently has to turn off the power supply to industry and homes to protect the national power grid from collapse, said Koeberg's two 900MW reactors need more storage capacity for spent fuel generated beyond 2018.Koeberg produces about 32t of spent fuel a year but its spent-fuel pools, where assemblies are cooled under water for a decade, are 70% full.The fuel assemblies contain radioactive materials, including uranium and plutonium, which can remain dangerous for thousands of years."Additional space will be created by moving spent fuel from spent-fuel pools into dry spent-fuel storage casks," Eskom said.Phase two of the project will be the procurement of 30 to 40 more dry-storage casks before a final phase in which an on-site transient interim storage facility will be built by 2019."An off-site central interim storage facility is planned to be available by 2025 [and] dry-storage casks will be transported from the transient interim storage facility to this facility." ..