Africa must embrace nuclear technology for a sustainable future

Lazarus Sauti

Nuclear technology simply refers to technology that involves the reactions of atomic nuclei, and among the notable nuclear technologies are nuclear reactors, nuclear medicine and nuclear weapons.

Every day, millions of people throughout the world benefit from the use of this technology.  

Dr Muhammad Dewu, an expert on energy issues, says nuclear technology is safe and cheaper in addressing Africa’s socio-economic challenges, especially power problems.

Dewu added that nuclear application can also be used in education, water, industrial and health sectors.

“Nuclear application is very safe and cheap in the long run; relatively safe, in fact the safest I will say, a lot of other benefits are also associated with it. When you talk about nuclear, there are other applications you can use it for; power generation is just a small component of it.

“So, if you do not do nuclear you lose out in all these components,” explained Dewu, adding that nuclear technology is applicable to every aspect of our lives, be it agriculture or medicine.

Dewu goes on to say: “It is very important and significant and any country that wants to prosper technologically and scientifically has to have atomic energy in its plans. There are countries that are operating nuclear power plants and they are doing it credibly well and it is serving them.”

Accordingly, countries within and across the continent of Africa should embrace nuclear technology for a sustainable future.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the world’s centre of cooperation in the nuclear field, shows the importance of nuclear technology and asserts in one of its comments: “Increased access to sufficient, safe water is made possible through nuclear techniques that map ground water resources more affordably and more quickly than any other means, and thus improve water managers’ ability to sustain this irreplaceable resource. Nuclear techniques enhance the efficiency of agricultural irrigation, which uses 70 per cent of all freshwater resources.”

Further showing the significance of nuclear technology, International Atomic Energy Agency added: “Access to affordable energy directly improves human welfare; current projections foresee electricity demand increasing by 60 to 100 per cent between today and 2030. Low carbon sources of energy, minimise the greenhouse gases emitted in energy generation and mitigate the negative impact of climate disruption on development.”

Sadly, Africa is being slow in embracing nuclear technology. Maybe it is so because the great continent of Africa has a small nuclear program, historically characterised by financial setbacks and slow growth, despite the continent’s quickly increasing energy needs.

Dr Rai Markandey, the Chief of global Parliamentarians and Trade Unions Program of the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (Habitat), believes the African continent did not have the financial capacity to set up nuclear technology plants.

“Setting up nuclear power production plants and managing their day to day running is an expensive venture which some African countries cannot afford. There is also the ultimate risk of the nuclear waste leaking into the public; do countries have the capacity to contain such once it happens?” he posed.

Dewu also believes the paucity of funds had hindered nuclear technology centres from effectively carrying out there mandates of training and researching into nuclear energy. Therefore, stakeholders in the energy sector should chip in and help with funding.

Furthermore, Des Muller, director at Group Five Nuclear Construction Services, says Africa needs serious funding to start embracing and encouraging nuclear technology infrastructure development, and the funding needs to be holistic.

“Funding for nuclear technology infrastructure needs to be a holistic approach. This is not about private companies investing enormous sums of money, time and resources into preparing the nuclear industry, [but] it is something that’s got to be dealt with by all the stakeholders, including the government,” said Muller.

“The private sector needs to come along and invest in the research of the renewable technologies in order to bring down the costs of production,” Dr Markandey also said.

Most private investors are afraid to invest in nuclear technology sector because of the political and regulatory investment risks involved. The poor state of the overall nuclear sector in the continent is another reason for the stunted growth.

Africa’s future nuclear energy needs would, therefore, only be assured in the context of a wider continental energy policy. Accordingly, governments and policy makers need to set up policies that facilitate both research and investment of these forms of technology.

This means African countries must take the lead in having the African Union adopt and implement a nuclear technology policy for the entire continent.

Policy makers in governments and other critical players in the energy mix need to create a level playing field in addition to providing easy market access in order to attract the private sector into investing in nuclear technology.

To reverse this challenge and other barriers that are affecting investment in the nuclear sector, governments and relevant stakeholders should fund nuclear research and training facilities, and the core funding should come from departments of science and technology.

Africa also needs to have transfer of technology from the developed countries to the continent in order to ensure that they have the human and technical capacity to sustain energy production. Frankly, the continent of Africa needs skilled nuclear scientists, meaning that there should be a drive to recruit young people into the field.

It is also critical for governments to minimise risks associated with nuclear technology. Dewu and Muller agree there could be some risks associated with nuclear technology, and their fears are grounded in recent history.

In 2011, Japan’s Fukushima nuclear complex exploded after a major earthquake, causing a leak of nuclear waste and raising questions globally over the safety of the same.

More so, South Africa’s Koeberg nuclear power station in 2010 had a radiation contamination during maintenance work affecting 100 people, though the levels were reportedly too low to cause much harm.

Throughout the world, nuclear applications in medicine, industry, agriculture and environmental research are helping to save lives, boost productivity, increase food output, provide energy and protect oceans and fresh water reserves. Therefore, countries within and across Africa must embrace and harness nuclear technology for a sustainable future.