Russia is at the center of two scientific advances in Africa making headlines last week: The launch, later this year, of Tunisia’s first satellite, and the development of a nuclear research facility in Rwanda.
The Rwandan Center of Nuclear Science and Technology — which received the official go-ahead from the country’s Chamber of Deputies on June 15 — is a project which was first agreed to at the Russian Conference on Africa, held in Sochi, on October 24, 2019. Some 50 Rwandan nuclear scientists are currently training in Russia, partly because there is no domestic infrastructure to support this. As Minister of Infrastructure Claver Gatete explained, “If we do not have skills in such areas, it becomes a big problem. That is why we want to build the prerequisite skills, which requires laboratory and trained people.”
One of the first projects Rwandan on which authorities anxiously have their eyes is food preservation by irradiation. Beyond that, the center is additionally expected to develop an integrated nuclear energy perspective for the entire country that will be beneficial to the advancement of several sectors of the economy, including education, sciences, and industry.
