A July 3rd agreement between Russia’s Rosatom and Rwanda, which includes cooperation on nuclear infrastructure and personnel training, targets the early 2030s for adding nuclear energy to the nation’s insufficient power supply. (Belgians consume, on average, 7,500 kWh/person/year; Rwandans, 125 kWh/person/year).
The project was laid out at the first meeting of the Joint Coordination Committee for Cooperation in the Field of Atomic Energy (JCC) in Moscow, headed up by Rosatom’s First Deputy General Director of Development and Int’l business, Kirill Komarov, and Lassina Zerbo, the Energy Advisor to the President of Rwanda and Chairman of the Rwanda Atomic Energy Board (RAEB).
The plans include building a Center for Nuclear Science and Technology (CNST), as well as developing nuclear infrastructure and human resources. This is a good step forward, but we, the heirs of the Declaration of Independence, ought to be ashamed of not having made sure this backwardness and poverty might have been remedied long ago, while still today, in all of Africa, there is only one nuclear plant, in South Africa, 1.8 GW producing affordable, reliable electricity since 1984, where the grid is nonetheless afflicted with outages because of the aging coal-fueled plants.
Backgrounder: In all of Africa, there are four commercial nuclear plants at various stages of construction, all being built in Egypt by Russia’s Rosatom. Other African countries have intentions to build: Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Morocco, Algeria, and Namibia, but so far only Rwanda has made the first step forward.
As for providers, Russia is far ahead, China next, while South Korea, the U.S. and France are also trying to enter the market.
All this and much more, could and should be accelerated by LaRouche’s extended Oasis Plan, applied worldwide.
