As Africa seeks clean energy, interest in nuclear power is growing. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), one-third of the more than 30 countries in the world considering nuclear power are in Africa. With all the risks that this entails.
In Africa, leaders are increasingly turning to nuclear power. It is an energy that depends on a fossil fuel, uranium, the ore of which is contained in the earth’s subsoil. At least seven African states have already made commitments to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to assess their willingness to embark on a nuclear programme. They are Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan. Algeria, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia are also considering the possibility, the agency said. Currently, South Africa has the only commercial nuclear power plant on the continent.
With this growing interest in nuclear power, solar and wind power have now proven their lower cost of production to increase electricity generation in Africa.
Nevertheless, one in three people on the continent still does not have access to electricity. Rural areas are the most affected. In southern Africa, for example, the drying up of hydroelectric dams due to climate change is partly responsible for the willingness of countries in the region to consider nuclear power. Despite the fact that nuclear power plants may also be affected by the receding water that cools their reactors. Dams, such as that of Lake Kariba (an artificial lake shared by Zambia and Zimbabwe), sometimes provide the majority of electricity to many countries in the region.
The African Nuclear Energy Commission commissioner Colin Namalambo, speaking at a meeting on possible nuclear power developments in Africa held in Accra, Ghana, in March 2020, said, “Africa is interested in nuclear science in general”.
How reliable is nuclear power really?
The question of the reliability of nuclear energy calls for several answers. For some countries and international organisations, renewable energies would remain safer than nuclear energy because they would not produce radioactive waste, which is dangerous to health and the environment, and would not generate enormous construction costs. Moreover, renewable energies would not require expensive grid connections as nuclear energy does. All the more so as we are currently witnessing, in East Africa for example, that electricity production already exceeds the capacity of the networks to transport it. Read more…
