According to a recent report issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency, “Outlook for Nuclear Energy in Africa,” commissioned by South Africa as the seat of the 2025 G20 Presidency, 22 countries in Africa are interested in developing nuclear energy, and some are at various stages of signing agreements with countries like Russia and China for construction projects. For example, Egypt is already constructing a four-unit nuclear power plant at El Dabaa in cooperation with Russia’s Rosatom.
Lassina Zerbo, chairperson of the Rwandan Atomic Energy Board spoke at the Global Atomic Forum, which took place on the sidelines of the World Atomic Week over September 25-28 in Moscow.
In his comments to RT, he noted that “upgrading national grids to support large-scale nuclear facilities would come with prohibitively high costs.
“By contrast, micro-reactors and small modular units [SMRs] can work with existing infrastructure, offering a ‘plug and play’ solution that bypasses the need for massive investments in grid modernization. Such reactors require little effort to upgrade, and come with ‘not such big costs’ … [allowing us] to benefit from an energy that we need for our socio-economic development.”
