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Kenya creating regulator to supervising private sector nuclear energy
Nuclear Energy cooling towers Soweto South Africa. PHOTO/File
Kenya is gearing up for a revision of its energy policy to establish a regulatory system for overseeing the potential opening of the country’s first private-sector nuclear power plant.
Despite warnings that the world’s nuclear waste is growing at alarming rates and with most of the current facilities having outlived their usefulness, a director of a government board Monday said several Kenyan scientists were already receiving training.
“The energy policy is being revised and nuclear has been added as part of the revised energy policy,” Ochilo Ayacko, a former energy minister who chairs a government board tasked with overseeing the introduction of nuclear technologies.
He said the establishment of the nuclear committee was a first major step. Kenya is eyeing the establishment of a nuclear-powered plant to produce almost 25 percent of the electricity needs out of the 15,000 megawatts capacity dream. Nineteen percent would come from a single nuclear-power plant.
Ayacko said an institution to promote nuclear technologies has been established, meeting a key target required by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) whose inspectors are currently visiting Kenya to determine the level of preparedness.
Thabishile Molea, an IAEA program manager, said Monday the team was visiting to review the level of preparedness and to enhance nuclear safety through an effective regulation system.
She said the regulatory framework for a nuclear project in Kenya was important for IAEA approval.
