New papers in the battle between Eskom, French nuclear specialist Areva and its competitor Westinghouse over the R5bn tender to replace six steam generators at the Koeberg nuclear plant were filed in the Constitutional Court yesterday, says a Business Day report. Westinghouse applied to submit what it said was crucial new evidence showing that Eskom had made false claims on the safety issue in its argument.

The extent of safety risks posed by a significant delay in the building programme was key to both arguments, and could be decisive in who gets awarded the tender, says Business Day. The battle over the tender was heard by the Constitutional Court in May. The tender, originally awarded to Areva, was set aside by the SCA as unlawful.

At the Constitutional Court, Eskom argued that, even if the court were to agree that the tender was unlawful, its order should allow for Areva to continue with the work – because of the safety risks associated with delay, and Areva had already begun the work. The new evidence included a 10-year production plan, which revised the plant’s outage schedule and shortened the length of the 2018 outage.

Full Business Day report