Kenya will go on with plans to construct its first ever nuclear plant to fill its power deficit, defying calls from Italian and German experts who urged the nation to instead focus on developing its renewable energy.

East Africa’s biggest economy identified possible sites near Lake Turkana, Lake Victoria and the Indian Ocean, targeting to use the vast water resources to cool off the reactors once they start generating power.

“If we compare the population and size of Kenya with developed nations, our country needs between 45,000 MW and 50,000 MW,” Business Daily quoted Joseph Njoroge, the Principal Secretary in the ministry of Energy, saying.

Njoroge added that the nation had explored the solar and wind options which it found unreliable due to their vulnerability to weather changes.

The nation will commission its first plant in 2027. It will have a capacity of 1,000 megawatts and will cost Sh 500 billion, Business Daily reported.

China, South Korea and Slovakia are the three nations partnering with Kenya in the nuclear project.

The move is part of Kenya’s drive to industrialize by 2030 and will provide power for both consumers and investors, but critics said the nation should instead focus on its 10,000 Megawatts of untapped geothermal energy in the Rift Valley basin.

The nation is also training students in nuclear science in South Korea and University of Nairobi’s Institute of Nuclear Science in efforts to increase the local expertise in atomic technology.

The experts’ safety concerns came months after the US urged nations with similar plans to carefully consider the dangers posed by atomic technology.

Germany will close all its nuclear plants by 2022. Italy closed down its last reactors in 1990 and a referendum to re-introduce the technology overwhelmingly voted against a return to the technology in June 2011, World Nuclear News reported.

In March 2011, a devastating nuclear tragedy hit Japan after an earthquake disabled power supply and cooling of three plants in Fukushima, leading to the deaths of at least 1000 people.

It is the second-worst tragedy after the Chernobyl disaster that hit Russia in April 1986.

Kenya will become the second African nation to generate nuclear power after South Africa, which has two nuclear reactors, contributing five percent to its electricity grid, according to data by World Nuclear Association.

The two reactors have been operational for the past 30 years.

Other nations eyeing the technology in Africa are Nigeria and Egypt.