South Africa - World Nuclear Performance Report

South Africa has a single nuclear power plant at Koeberg, 30 km north of Cape Town. The plant’s two reactors, connected to the grid in 1984 and 1985, have a combined capacity of 1854 MWe.

Refurbishment of the two units at Koeberg, including the replacement of the reactors’ steam generators, began in 2022 and concluded with the return to service of unit 2 in January 2025. The work has extended the operating lifetime of the plant by 20 years.

Earlier in December 2023 South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) said it was proceeding with the procurement of 2500 MWe of new nuclear capacity, but in August 2024 the procurement process was paused. The Minister of Energy and Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said that the process had come under legal pressure on the grounds that public
comments had not been sought and the procedure had not been fair. He emphasized that nuclear remains part of the government's plans for energy security but added that it is "happy" to delay the process "to allow for each and every party in the country that wants to add a voice in how we are going to procure this process … to be given the opportunity to be able to make that submission."

Nuclear electricity generation by age of reactor