Kenya’s first nuclear power plant will be commissioned by the year 2022 according to the Ministry of Energy, permanent secretary, Mr Patrick Wanyoike.
According to the government time frame, the formulation of nuclear power technical committee was done by April this year. Other activities such as feasibility studies and conceptual design, formulation of nuclear energy commission and nuclear regulatory commission, human resource and training, development and enactment of compressive legal frame work and mobilization of financial resources will be through by 2014 for construction to begin by 2021 and it’s commissioning to be realized by 2022.
In his presentation during the 21st National Economic and Social Council (NESC), Mr Wanyoike said that the huge energy deficit of 3,000 megawatts (MW) experienced by the country necessitates nuclear energy option for consideration. He says that even with determined efforts by the government to bridge this deficit through hydro power, oil based thermal, geothermal, co-generation and wind energy generation, the country has since 2006 been operating expensive diesel fired emergency power generation to sustain its energy needs.
The global climate change has led Kenya to experience prolonged droughts thus rendering hydro electricity power generators at Masinga, Kamburu, Kiambere and Turkwell to generate electricity below their optimal capacities. Currently a total of 1,200 MW is generated daily.
Power deficit is expected to worsen albeit the projected commissioning of 1599 MW by the year 2014: 360MW from medium size dams (MSDs) at Kipevu, Athi River and Tana; 62 MW hydro at Tana, Kindaruma and Songoro; 70 MW geothermal well head units; 280 MW at Olkaria I and 52 MW Olkaria II; 25 MW by Kengen, Ngong wind turbines; 300 MW from Turkana wind turbines and 300 MW from Mombasa coal plant.
This additional power generation will increase the capacity of hydro power to 2211MW while the deficit will widen to 1783 MW. However, the PS says that the government plans to generate 18,000 MW by 2018 and 40,000 MW by 2030, where 4,200 MW from nuclear energy has been factored in - to realize envisioned industrialization by 2030.
Notwithstanding the high investments costs to put up a 1,000 MW nuclear power plant estimated to be US$ 2 to 4 billion – it’s sustainability is favorable when compared with geothermal and coal plants of same capacities in addition to low carbon emissions.
“Nuclear energy is the fuel of the 21st century and could be part of the solution for energy security in Kenya,” says Prof. Shaukat Abdulrazak the Secretary of the National Council for Science and Technology (NCST), also a liaison office of the International Atomic and Energy Agency (IAEA), UN agency charged with promotion and utility of nuclear energy for peaceful uses.
Abdulrazak asserts that nuclear energy will help in mitigating the effects of global warming. He adds that several countries from Africa are joining the bandwagon to include nuclear energy in their energy mix.
Kenya should be targeting at least 7, 000MW of electricity to keep live the hopes of claiming a new and respectful status in terms of industrialization, says Dr. Gitahi Kariuki, a technical engineer in nuclear reactor safety, adding that “nuclear energy is capable of meeting these targets.”
Kariuki articulates that there is hardly any developed country without nuclear power in its grid system. Sixteen of the developed countries have more than a quarter of their electricity supplied by nuclear power plants.
Nevertheless, he has doubts on proposed Kenyan time frame as the country presently has no law or regulations on the utilization of nuclear technologies for power production. “There is no nuclear programme in place, no research reactor in operation and the technical capacity is non-existent,” says the Kenyan engineer working with a Canadian power generating firm.
A chief science secretary at NCST counters that a country like ours with no significant nuclear activity may take up to 15 years from the time we have the nuclear power option included in our national energy strategy to the commissioning of the first nuclear power plant as demonstrated in Gulf and East Asia countries whereby it has taken less than 10 years to design, site, construct and commission a nuclear power plant by the separation of promoters (who may be public or private entities) and the regulator.
But Kariuki says that “even if the emerging countries have been able to find ways to accelerate the construction of nuclear power plants, the regulatory and the operators should remain two separate entities”. Because, for a country to be accepted as a respectable nuclear power plant operator an independent body that oversees the licensing has to be in place. The regulators are responsible for safety in the nuclear operations; keep the log of all nuclear materials used, set the rules and licensing requirements among other things.
The engineer explains, further: “what the new countries are doing is to shorten the waiting period before licenses are issued and this is by improving efficiency in the licensing processing. The actual construction periods are also shortened.”
He gives an example of the UAE which will achieve its nuclear reactor in slightly 10 years period with a cost of US $ 6 billion per reactor.
No comments:
Post a Comment