New Telegraph

Uganda acquires land for East Africa’s first nuclear power plant

The Ugandan Minister of State for Energy, Okasai Sidronius Opolot, has said Uganda has acquired land for the construction of East Africa’s first nuclear power plant. He stated that the development was also part of the efforts of the country,

 

which is the continent’s top exporter of coffee beans, to expand its electricity generation capacity multi-fold. Opolot, however, did not identify the site in the statement. Uganda had, in 2017, said that it planned to build a 2,000-megawatt nuclear power plant by 2032.

 

The country largely depends on hydroelectric power. According to the country’s Electricity Regulatory Authority, Uganda has plans to boost electricity generation capacity by almost 12-fold to 17,000 megawatts in the medium term. Aline des Cloizeaux, a director at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reportedly said the agency found that the country was ready for building the nuclear plant.

 

The only atomic power station in Africa is situated near Cape Town in South Africa, while Kenya and Nigeria have plans to construct nuclear power plants. To have nuclear energy, Nigeria established a relationship with Russia and the Russian State Nuclear Corporation, Rosatom.

 

The Russian-Nigerian Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) on National Atomic Energy was first established in 2009 with the goal of having completed nuclear energy plants by 2020. Russia and Nigeria reconstituted the agreement on July 15, 2021.

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