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Why Kenya won’t shelve its plans for nuclear power plants

juma

Kenya Nuclear Electricity Board acting chief executive Collins Juma. PHOTO | FILE

Energy experts from Italy and Germany last month advised Kenya to drop plans to build nuclear power plants and instead harness its vast renewable energy resources for power generation.

The experts, attending a renewable energy conference in Nairobi, reckoned that Kenya is better off developing more geothermal wells, solar parks and wind farms.

They cited massive costs for a nuke plant, long construction periods of about 10 years and expensive decommissioning of plants at the end of their lifespan, especially disposing of hazardous radioactive waste.

Kenya plans to commission its first nuclear plant with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts in 2027 at a cost of about Sh500 billion. The Business Daily sought the views of the Kenya Nuclear Electricity Board’s (KNEB) acting chief executive, Collins Juma. Here are the excerpts.

How did Kenya conceptualise the idea of having nuclear power plants?

Kenya’s plan to build nuclear power plants was a well thought-out idea in 2010. We reckoned that the economy would need at least 18,000 MW to support our drive to industrialise by 2030. (Kenya’s total power capacity is about 2,400 MW currently).

Studies by the Ministry of Energy indicate the country’s maximum geothermal energy potential is 10,000 MW, meaning even if we were to exploit the whole of it, this would still fall short of our target.

On the other hand, we have little room to ramp up our hydropower generation capacity while wind and solar energy sources can’t serve as base loads, since they are weather-dependent.

This naturally led us to coal and nuclear power options. There is no single economy that has industrialised on renewable energy alone, without the option of nuclear or coal which are very good base loads.

What preparations has Kenya made ahead of the planned nuke plant?

We had 15 years to prepare on key areas like nuclear safety, human resource development, nuclear fuel cycle, radioactive waste handling, electrical grid and financing.

We are right on track and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the nuclear energy watchdog, has affirmed as much.

We are training dozens of Kenyan students in nuclear science in South Korea and the University of Nairobi’s Institute of Nuclear Science.

We have set a 2027 target for commissioning our first nuke plant, meaning construction will start in 2020 or thereabout.  We plan at least four nuke plants with a total output of 4,000 MW.

We are also in discussions with the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) to ensure the transmission lines network is robust to handle the nuke power.

Kenya has signed pacts with China, South Korea and Russia on nuclear development. Which country shall we settle for to develop the nuke reactors?

It is early to determine that now. But our pacts with the three countries, and Slovakia aim to give us a pool of best practices in nuclear development as opposed to limiting ourselves to one nuclear vendor.

The nuclear board has identified possible sites for nukes in towns bordering Lake Turkana, Indian Ocean and Lake Victoria whose waters will cool the reactors.

Which are these sites?

We have identified 10 candidate sites in an ongoing process across the country. However, it’s too early to disclose the specific locations. Our choice is largely guided by availability of plenty of water to cool down the reactors.

Italian and German energy experts warn against nuclear technology, citing heavy costs and safety reasons. What plans do we have?

First, these two economies relied on nuclear and coal to industrialise. (Germany plans to pull nuclear plants off its power grid by 2022 in favour of green energy while Italy shut down its last nuke plant in 1990).

What they are not telling us is that Germany still relies on coal and cannot entirely rely on renewable sources while Italy is a heavy importer of nuclear electricity from France. Where does this place Kenya?

In any case Germany’s plants are old and due for decommissioning by 2022. The financing aspect should not be a concern. It’s true the cost of a nuke plant is massive ranging between $4 billion to $5 billion for a 1,000 MW plant.

We have flexible financing options, including the public private partnership in which a private developer will finance the plant, construct and operate it for some time to recoup investments and make a profit before handing it over to the State.

We plan plants of up to 80 years lifespan. The nuclear electricity cost of between Sh8 and Sh10 per unit ($0.08 and $0.10) — in the same range as geothermal energy — favours both investors and consumers based on the long lifespan.

How will Kenya address the safety concerns?

Nuclear power sector can be related to the aviation sector in terms of safety. The chances of accidents are very low. So safety should be the least of our concerns. It’s true the few time accidents have happened it was disastrous.

We only have two incidents out of the 463 nuclear plants globally. We have the Chernobyl in 1986, the Three Mile Island in the US while the Fukushima Daiichi was caused by tsunami, a natural calamity, not human or technical error.

We have since learnt from these incidents. We also plan to partner with Finland in radioactive waste handling, an area they are very good at.

Finland is preparing to bury its highly radioactive nuclear waste for 100,000 years — sealing it up in caves.

Apart from electricity what other positive aspects will nuke plants bring to the economy?

A nuke plant can provide employment to about 1,000 people directly and a further 30,000 indirectly.

It will also empower us technologically and place us on the same pedestal as the rest of the advancing economies.