Necsa marks South African nuclear industry milestone

The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) marked an important milestone on Wednesday when it formally handed over the first locally-designed and manufactured safety-critical nuclear component, fully certified, to national power utility Eskom for use in the Koeberg nuclear power plant, near Cape Town. Necsa has a Nuclear Manufacturing unit within its Pelindaba Enterprises division. The component is an air receiver vessel. The specifications and overall design were drawn up by a team at Koeberg, while the detailed design and computer modelling was carried out at Pelindaba Enterprises. Design and manufacture were monitored by global quality assurance organisation TUV and by the South African National Nuclear Regulator.