Last week, I completed my first visit to Kenya. It was the perfect time for the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency to be in the country, as the Kenyan government announced its plans to build the first nuclear power plant by 2034.
I was pleased to end my mission to Kenya at the US-Africa Nuclear Energy Summit in Nairobi, where I delivered a keynote speech during which I highlighted that the global community cannot sit idly while more than 640 million Africans lack access to reliable electricity and the continent’s population continues to grow. Doing nothing could lead to catastrophe.
During the event, I met with many leaders and experts from different African countries and found that they are responding to the challenge. They recognise the need to provide reliable electricity for their societies and the need to be part of the global energy transition. I noted that trained people and access to electricity will be the determinants of economic success or failure in the future and that in many countries around the world, nuclear energy will be needed to play a vital role.
I addressed openly the perceptions I hear outside and inside Africa that prompt many to ask “Why nuclear in Africa?”. The challenges are there, but so is the potential; it is wrong, short-sighted and potentially disastrous to view Africa as a place where technologies OECD countries see as vital to their futures cannot be applied.
So why not Africa?
We at the NEA are ready to co-operate with African countries as they prepare and implement nuclear programmes, and have developed the initiative “Our Common Journey” to build co-operative frameworks among ministries, universities and businesses to enhance skills and opportunities - and to connect these frameworks with those existent in the NEA.
I look forward to continuing working with governments and stakeholders to support safe, economic and sustainable development of nuclear energy programmes on the continent. As I said at the end of my remarks, “Nuclear is a global village”. The international frameworks and co-operation in nuclear are like almost nothing else and they reinforce disciplined practices that improve safety cultures and performance.
Then I say to Africa: “Welcome to the village.”
Pictured: Panel discussion with Aleshia Duncan, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of International Cooperation, Office of Nuclear Energy, U.S. Department of Energy; Commissioner David Wright, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC); Wilhelmina Asamoah, Chief Director, Ghana Ministry of Energy; Lassina Zerbo, Chairperson, Rwanda Atomic Energy Board; Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins; Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, U.S. Department of State; Shaukat Abdulrazak, Director for the Division of Africa, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
