Faced with power shortfalls, demands for greener energy and drought threats to hydropower, a growing range of African nations are considering a shift to an unexpected power source – nuclear energy. South Africa has the continent’s only commercial nuclear power plant. But according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a third of the almost 30 countries around the world considering adopting nuclear power are in Africa.
Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan have engaged with the IAEA to assess their readiness to embark on a nuclear programme, and Algeria, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia are mulling the possibility, according to the agency. Altogether, at least seven sub-Saharan African states have signed agreements to deploy nuclear power with backing from Russia, according to public announcements and the World Nuclear Association (WNA), an industry body.
That growing interest comes despite evidence that solar and wind might be a cheaper and greener way to expand electricity production in Africa, where one person in three still lacks access, most of them in rural areas. Benson Kibiti, director of communications for Power for All, which aims over the next decade to get reliable energy to most of the 1.1 billion people globally without it, said off-grid solar is the smartest economic choice for Africa. “While I agree that the continent is in dire need of energy, with 600 million people still living without access to electricity, it takes 10 years and billions of dollars to commission a nuclear power station,” he said in an email.
That makes nuclear power a “prohibitively expensive” choice, he said, arguing that “off-grid solar is and should be Africa’s energy future”. But countries from Egypt to Ghana are pushing ahead with nuclear plans, arguing such power is low-carbon and can provide a reliable baseline of energy to complement renewables such as solar and wind.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
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