Going Nuclear in East Africa

The problem of deficiency in the electricity supply is common to all east and central African countries. There is reason to suggest that rather than tackle cross-cutting problems as individual countries, they should be tackled by a combined regional effort. The most recent trend in power generation is nuclear energy.

Nuclear power owes its strength to the very low operating costs involved, inherent safety by design, manageable quantities of fuel (uranium), enormous fuel to electricity yield ratios and presence of uranium resource in the region, i.e. in the DRC, Namibia, Zambia and S. Africa.
The only drawback to this technology is a relatively high capital investment ($1300/kW) but the benefits of very low operational and maintenance costs are significant, making this solution viable.

It is interesting to note that Kiira hydro cost $207m for 200MW while Bujagali hydro is projected to cost $500m for 250MW implying rates of $1,000/kW and $2,200/kW, respectively) Further, it is an attractive choice to supply the base load since nuclear reactor plants run round-the-clock efficiently for months on end.

A regional joint effort is necessary to realise a nuclear solution to our energy problems. Approximately 1,650MW is generated in the East African region of which over 60% is attributed to domestic and commercial demand (base load).

AllAfrica