NAIROBI - At least seven African countries are at various stages – commissioning, shopping for vendors and mapping appropriate sites - in the roll-out of nuclear power plants, as a majority eye 2030 as a start-date for generating electricity from nuclear energy.
Egypt is currently the only country to have begun construction, following the formal launch of a site in July. The US$25 billion project, being developed by Russian state energy corporation Rosatom, will have total installed capacity of 4.8 gigawatts (GW) made up of four, 1,200 megawatt reactors, when complete.
“Egypt has joined the nuclear club. The plant will be the largest project of the Russian-Egyptian cooperation since the Aswan High Dam. Having its own nuclear energy industry has been a dream for the Egyptian people for more than half-a-century,” said Rosatom Director-General Alexey Likhachov, during the launch.
Kenya is also inching closer to the development stage, after identifying two coastal sites - Kilifi and Kwale counties – earlier in the year, to put up the country’s first nuclear power generator.
The country’s Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA) has estimated the project would cost about US$50 million, with construction works planned for 2030, a test run four years later and full operations projected for 2036.
