“Nigeria has also put in place a Nuclear Waste Management Policy, and we have started the development of facilities for the comprehensive management of low and intermediate-level radioactive wastes,” Osaisai told the IAEA.
In mid-2010, Nigeria established a target of 1,000 megawatts of nuclear capacity by 2019, with another 4,000 megawatts by 2030.
In June 2012, Russian firm Rosatom signed a memo of understanding with the Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission to “prepare a comprehensive program of building nuclear power plants in Nigeria,” including the development of infrastructure and regulations for nuclear and radiation safety, according to the World Nuclear Association.
In February 2014, the Kenyan government confirmed plans to pursue nuclear power to meet the country’s energy needs. This is in tune with Kenya’s Vision 2030, the long-term development blueprint to “transform Kenya into a newly industrializing, middle-income country providing a high quality of life to all its citizens by 2030 in a clean and secure environment whilst making the country globally competitive.” Under the plan, the biggest challenge is energy to meet the “envisioned rapid industrialization and adoption of manufacturing.”
To meet that challenge, Kenya — which has been dealing with frequent power blackouts due to higher demand — is hoping its first 1,000-megawatt nuclear plant will be commissioned by 2024, with additional plants of 1,000 megawatts each online by 2026, 2029 and 2031.
The critical need for nuclear energy is driven by rising demand for power due to the accelerated investment in the economy, according to the Feb. 24 final draft of Kenya’s National Energy Policy.The plan further notes that “the introduction of nuclear plants into the grid is justified by the demand for electricity within the Eastern Africa power pool (EAPP).”
Kenya’s shift towards nuclear power began in 2010, leading to the formation of a Nuclear Electricity Project Committee, which was replaced by the Kenya Nuclear Electricity Board in November 2012.
And since 2011, the government has been sponsoring 15 students annually to study nuclear science at the University of Nairobi.
Though the site of Kenya’s first reactor has not been agreed on, the first nuclear power plant may be located at either a coastal region or near Lake Victoria due to the large amounts of water required to cool nuclear power plants. The Kenya Nuclear Electricity Board is doing a pre-feasibility study to address key technical issues.
In April 2007, the government of Ghana announced plans to pursue nuclear power to secure its future energy supply. In 2012, the progression toward a 1,000-megawatt facilitywas dubbed “in the long term,” and not before 2030, according to the World Nuclear Association. That same year, the Ministry of Energy established the Ghana Nuclear Power Program Organization and the Ministry of Energy & Petroleum signed a cooperation agreement with Russia to help build up Ghana’s infrastructure for the eventual addition of nuclear power.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, no matter where a nuclear plant is built, the challenges remain the same: finances, human resources, and establishment of a legal and regulatory framework.
“The IAEA is a supporting partner, but not, as sometimes mistakenly thought, nuclear regulator that can decide what countries can and cannot do,” Webb said. “Hence, we would not have an opinion on the nuclear plans of any IAEA member state, including Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.”
Nuclear power advocates in the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere point to nuclear power as a “clean” power source to eliminate climate-changing carbon emissions.
South Africa, with its reliance on coal, is no exception, even as it leads the world in renewable wind and solar energy projects that are up and running in a year or two. This has left some energy analysts baffled as to why any country would invest billions of dollars in nuclear power plants that take 15 years just to build.
“I think from a straightforward opportunity point of view, nuclear still holds a lot of potential,” van der Waal said. “But having said that, I think that for South Africa — at present the only country in Africa that does have nuclear capability — it is sort of a bragging right, if you want to call that. I think, to some extent, it is a little bit to do with ego as well, for us to be able to say that ‘we can do nuclear, we are in the leagues of major countries in the world.’”
