Is Africa ready for nuclear energy?

Southern Africa is facing energy shortages as climatic changes intermittently turn off the switch on hydroelectric power generation and oil prices remain exorbitantly high.

As regional energy powerhouse South Africa ponders uranium enrichment, there is need to explore whether other uranium-producing African countries that are still in the dark on alternative sources of energy, can take a bite of the “yellow cake” (energy rich uranium oxide) and generate nuclear energy.
The Southern African Development Community region is confronted by crippling power shortages blamed on droughts that have lowered water levels in dams powering hydropower stations, and besides cutting down on the region’s economic growth, power shortages are retarding investment and threatening expansion plans of companies that have invested in the region.

Africa”s ongoing energy crisis, probably the biggest and most imminent threat to economic growth, comes at a time a greenhouse gas weary world is experiencing a renaissance in the nuclear energy and uranium mining sectors, and some countries look set to light the nuclear candle.

In Tanzania, the energy crisis came to a point where urbanites had to endure 18-hour power cuts and some industrialists were considering closing down after water levels in the Mtera Dam fell below the permitted power-generation level of 690 cubic meters last year.

The Statesman