Cape Town — Koeberg Nuclear Power Station has to undergo shut-downs to repair leaks in both generation units, raising the spectre of power shortages and blackouts. The first shutdown is scheduled to take place next week.

Sapa reports that Eskom spokesman Tony Stott said on Saturday that Koeberg is to be shut down to "mitigate" a possible risk in one of its water cooling systems.

Stott said there was corrosion on the system that took in sea water to cool down some components in the reactor buildings.

"It is not the system that cools down the reactor of condenses steam from the turbine," he said.

"The cooling system for the turbine is a closed system and does not come into contact with the environment."

Stott said the planned shut-down was not part of Koeberg's normal shut-downs, that occur every 18 months.

"It is just a precautionary measure," he said.

"We want to keep the risk during the World Cup as low as possible."

Stott said Eskom made an assessment of all the potential risks at all its power stations before the World Cup. A schedule of short duration shutdowns was implemented to undertake maintenance at stations where problems were identified.

He said the cooling system at Koeberg where the risk was found cooled some components and structures in the reactor buildings.

"Some off the rubber lines came loose and because we use sea water it causes corrosion on the steel piping," he said.

It was a long term risk.

Each of the two Koeberg units would be shut down for between seven and 14 days respectively, at different times during March and April.

Stott said the shut-downs would not power cause outages in the Western Cape or in the rest of the country.

"We are slotting in and scheduling the maintenance work on the power stations so that we have enough capacity to meet the demand," he said.

"It does increase the risk of power outages if something else goes wrong and another power station has to shut down completely."

Stott requested all power consumers to be prudent and not to waste electricity and to implement energy saving measures wherever possible.

Earlier, source at Koeberg told IOL's sister newspaper the Weekend Argus that the station's two generation units would have to undergo an unplanned shut-down, after technicians discovered leaks in pipes that were supposedly refurbished as recently as 2007.

The shut-downs, which the source said would have to happen in sequence, would place a severe strain on the country's power grid, bringing power shortages reminiscent of the load-shedding black-outs that started in October of 2007.

According to the source, who asked to remain anonymous, both generation units at Koeberg are believed to have leaks in pipes carrying seawater as coolant, with Unit 1 having a 19mm hole in a pipe.

The source, a senior staff member, said there were talks about having to take both units down, possibly for as long as two weeks each.

"The biggest issue is with Unit 1. They are taking the unit down on Friday for seven days but longer if necessary," he said.

He said that Unit 1 would be taken offline.

"Only after it is up and running for 28 days will they take Unit 2 offline but the hole there is much smaller."

He said Unit 1 was supposed to come down from March 19 to 22 to repair the leaking pipe but now it would take longer.

"It's not a nuclear hazard - just general maintenance."

The staff member said supply lines A and B were both leaking seawater. The pipes were rubber lined and it appeared that the rubber had lifted off.

The rubber lining was replaced in 2007 and he said it should have lasted longer than it had.

"This is not planned maintenance, it is an unplanned shutdown. I'm not sure if the up-country stations will be able to supply power," he said.

Meanwhile it has been revealed that cash-strapped Eskom has spent more than R44 million of taxpayers' money on sponsorships, - including half a million rand to the National Energy Regulator of SA for "stakeholder relationship building" - even as it battled to fund new power stations and applied to Nersa for permission to increase its rates.

Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan revealed in a written reply to a parliamentary question that Eskom - which is awaiting a crucial $3.75 billion loan from the World Bank to complete the construction of the Medupi and Kusile coal-fired power plants - sponsored various organisations between 2007 and 2009 to the tune of R44 268 880.

According to Hogan, the power utility spent R10.75m a year on the Proudly South African campaign in the last three years for global "exposure" and because "Eskom is a proudly SA company".

Other sponsorships included R6.9m funding of an Eskom expo for young scientists and R2m paid to the South African Local Government Association to "build relationships".

Eskom paid another R1.5m to sponsor the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre to promote "public awareness" of mathematics, science and technology learning.

The National Energy Regulator of SA - which last month granted the state-owned utility an average electricity tariff increase of 24.8, 25.8 and 25.9 percent over the next three years - got a R500 000 sponsorship from Eskom in 2008.

Another R175 000 went to Trialogue, a consultancy on corporate social investment, while R1.1m was spent on conferences on industrial and domestic energy use last year.

The International Association of Business Communicators received R80 000 while the SA Chamber of Commerce was given R200 000 "to strengthen relationships".

In her reply, Hogan said she would not be making any public statements about the utility's sponsorships.

However, Pieter Groenewald of the Freedom Front Plus, which posed the question to Hogan on Eskom's funding of organisations, said the sponsorships were "totally unacceptable".

Groenewald said Eskom should immediately stop sponsoring any other organisations while faced with a financial crisis.

"On the one side Eskom says it cannot survive financially and it wants increased tariffs to fund projects, but on the other side it is sponsoring organisations that have nothing to do with them," said Groenewald.

"There are other departments in government and the private sector that are in a much better financial state to provide sponsorships. Why should Eskom spend so much money unnecessarily?" asked Groenewald.

The DA said Eskom should not have sponsored companies that could have received sponsorships from other "relevant" departments.

"These are outrageous, unnecessary and un-mandated functions that Eskom is engaging in ... it is absolutely ludicrous that a company that is struggling financially like Eskom, which is dependent on public money, is using money to fund people who have nothing to do with the core business of Eskom," said Pieter van Dalen, adding that Eskom's sponsorships were "a waste of taxpayer's money".

"If Eskom was a company making a profit we would not have a problem with this. But Eskom is in trouble. Eskom should be cutting costs."

However, Eskom argued that its sponsorships were selected in line with "strategic business imperatives".

"It is a critical component of Eskom's evaluation criteria that any sponsorship must be linked to a particular business issue, such as skills development, social responsibility, social investment, energy efficiency or innovation in the industry. Eskom reviews its sponsorships on an annual basis and will certainly do so in terms of current conditions," said an Eskom statement.