As part of the Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg last month, with 49 African nations represented, a session titled “Nuclear Technologies for the Development of the African Continent” unanimously agreed that the continent has a tremendous option in nuclear energy to light up Africa.
EIR has found out the panelists to the exciting session who reached the conclusion, which includes Alexey Likhachev, Director General, State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM; Ibrahim Uwizeye, Minister of Hydraulics, Energy and Mining of the Republic of Burundi; Doto Mashaka Biteko, Minister of Minerals of Tanzania; Zhemu Soda, Minister of Energy and Power Development of Zimbabwe; Amged El-Wakeel, Chairman of the Board, Nuclear Power Plants Authority of Egypt; Fidele Ndahayo, Chief Executive Officer, Rwanda Atomic Energy Board; and Princess Mthombeni, Founder, Africa4Nuclear; Nuclear Communication and Technology Specialist of South Africa.
Panelist Princy Mthombeni spoke at the April 9, 2022 Schiller Institute conference, and was interviewed July 21 of this year by independent candidate for U.S. Senate from New York, Diane Sare on the subject, “Let There Be Light! Africa (and New York) Need Nuclear Power.”
The Nigerian publication Vanguard News, reporting on the Russia-Africa Summit’s “Nuclear Technologies” session, featured the highlights: “The leaders took turns to present their levels of power efficiency and x-rayed how nuclear energy can engender wealth creation, energy efficiency, technology sovereignty and advanced medicine. According to [Egypt’s] El Wakeel, nuclear energy has helped Egypt in many ways including clean water, health, agriculture and electricity, even as the country still needs to further advance its economy, using the technology.”
During the summit, Russia’s State Nuclear Energy Corporation, Rosatom, signed a number of agreements with African nations. Rosatom’s Director General Alexey Likhachev and Zimbabwe’s Energy Minister Soda Zhem signed an agreement, which: “establishes a legal framework for cooperation between Russia and Zimbabwe in the peaceful use of atomic energy,” including “the creation and improvement of Zimbabwe’s nuclear infrastructure in accordance with international guidelines; regulation in the field of nuclear and radiation safety, production of radioisotopes and their use in industry, medicine and agriculture;” and “ cooperation in areas of application of radiation technologies and nuclear medicine, education, training and retraining of specialists for the nuclear industry,” reports Rosatom.
Rosatom and Ethiopia signed an agreement, which is a roadmap “for bilateral cooperation in the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes,” which includes specific steps… “to explore the possibilities of building a nuclear power plant of large or small capacity, as well as a Nuclear Science and Technology Center in Ethiopia.” Russia has already built such a center in Bolivia.
Further, Russia and Burundi signed an agreement, at the Russia-Africa summit, very similar to that signed by Russia and Zimbabwe for cooperation for the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Earlier, a delegation from Burundi, headed by President Evariste Ndayishimiye visited the 1.2 gigawatt Leningrad nuclear power plant. Burundi officials said that Russia’s nuclear power plants could be very useful within the context of the Burundi 2040 project to lead that country “to energy security and independence.” The significance of this becomes clear when you consider that Burundi currently has the lowest per capita GDP in the world.
A division of Rosatom signed a memorandum of understanding with the South African Energy Corporation, which is crucial as it “opens up the possibility of recreating [in South Africa] the production capacity for the manufacture and supply of nuclear fuel,” which appears to have fallen into disuse for reasons which are unclear. The MOU will thus give a kick start to South Africa’s nuclear industry. All of these agreements were discussed on a collaborative basis.
In Africa, very efficient nuclear power plants are part of a mix that will include very useful natural gas-fired power plants, clean coal-fired power plants, and hydro-electric plants. It is Russia’s role in spreading nuclear power which has led the British, the U.S. and EU to seriously attempt to disrupt the financing and every aspect of the Russian nuclear power to Africa project.
