South Africa's electricity minister says that he wants to be optimistic that the life span of Eskom's Koeberg nuclear plant, Africa's ageing and only nuclear power station near Cape Town, will be granted a long term operational licence. "All that we can do is to be optimistic that the licensing will happen, the extension of life," during a site visit to the plant. "If it doesn’t of course there’s contingency measures that we will put into place." South Africa has been battling blackouts for more than a decade. The Koeberg site produces nearly 2000 megawatts of electricity when it is fully operational, but with just one unit online currently it is now only producing around half that according to the power station's general manager. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES