State-run utility Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) on Friday agreed a deal on developing nuclear energy in Kenya, as the African nation looks to broaden its sources of electricity.
The company and the Kenya Nuclear Electricity Board (KNEB) signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on the construction of nuclear projects and sharing expertise, South Korea’s energy ministry said in a statement.
East Africa’s largest economy aims to add nuclear power with a total capacity of 4,000 megawatts by 2033, the ministry said.
Blackouts are common in Kenya, partly because of an ageing energy network and insufficient generation capacity. Many businesses in Nairobi and other big towns operate back-up generators.
South Korea, the world’s fifth-biggest user of nuclear power, has developed its own nuclear industry, constructing and operating its reactors through KEPCO.
A KEPCO-led consortium in 2009 won a contract to build four nuclear reactors in the United Arab Emirates, which are under construction.
Fuck the pessimism. Why this frame of mind that we cannot handle 1950 s technology in the 21st century? This is energy that would push us to the first world in a very short time.
We sema tu pessimism like nuclear energy is a chew toy. Do you know the environmental impact of a radiation leak. The place becomes inhabitable for over 100 years plus.
Get a hold of your excitement and be reasonable.
Going for Korea is will not be a good deal. Rosatom of Russia is now world leader in NPPs. Their main advantage is the provision of whole package from inception to removal of radioactive waste.
They are currently building 15 NPPs while KEPCO (TEPCO??) is building 6. Other western companies e.g Westinghouse, toshiba, areva et al. do not come close.
Continue living under a rock, but stop pulling us down under with you. I personally abhor people who only see how we will fail rather than how we can make it work and be beneficial to all. M-PESA had not been tried anywhere else, yet it is almost the eighth wonder of the world. By the way it will not work in europe or US why? Pessimists like you there, and vested interests from the credit card industry. And so my brother, there are people who want you to believe you don’t have the capability to understand and generate nuclear energy. That you should continue running your industries on other expensive energy sources, thereby killing your manufacturing industries by making them uncompetitive. And you believe them, Nkt.
There was a feature on one of the stations regarding a company (I think rift valley) that was burying asbestos underground. & Ninjas are getting excited about nuclear na hiyo kitu huwa na waste. Would rather we went w/renewable sources.
Thank you. I wanted to add this thought as an edit but I got too lazy. I see this guy Ole Masai talking about “I personally abhor people who only see how we will fail rather than how we can make it work and be beneficial to all.” Then gives an example with Mpesa. We are talking about Nuclear Energy here. Something which in the world war shook Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As much as we want to lie to ourselves that ‘tunaendelea’ trying to be the ‘First’ in having a nuclear plant in East Africa or something, let us be reasonable and think of the environmental, the economic effects of having such a sensitive development in this country.
I wish we were talking about the oil we have. At least if we have an oil spill, it can be cleaned up in about a month and the environmental effects are not that severe. But a Nuclear Plant? It is not a play thing. Something that you come up with in your sleep and decide overnight to build one. We are not even an industrial powerhouse to justify the need for Nuclear power. Let us exhaust other renewable sources and upgrade our power lines to increase efficiency before we can even think of Nuclear Power.
Let me not even mention the likelihood of a terrorist attack on the infrastructure, what with our inefficient Homeland security services. It is a good advancement but not at the right time. Call me a pessimist, tell me I am not a patriot or some other abusive term, but that is my honest opinion, whether anybody asked for it or not.
there was a newspaper artice sometime back in which they were saying that even though the country’s capacity has increased by 900Mw in the past 4yrs demand has increased by only 300 or so Mw. …why do we need nuclear power yet we are not even consuming what we are producing? I smell vested interests
Newspaper article??
Don’t know about you but would surely appreciate lower power bills. Check percentage of your bill that caters for fuel costs.
And the biggest costs in manufacturing are power related.
And why do you belive you lack the capability to handle nuclear energy?
Why do you doubt yourselves?