FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Kenya Is Considering ‘Fast-Tracking’ Its Nuclear Plans To Meet Its Energy Goals
Sept. 1 (EIRNS)—Kenya is considering putting in place a law that would allow it to fast track its plan for a nuclear power plant. Nuclear power, the government believes, is needed in order to meet its goal for a dramatic increase in electric generating capacity.
As reported Aug. 30 by Xinhua, speaking to journalists in Nairobi, Simon Kachapin, chief administrative secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, said that the nuclear regulatory law has passed the cabinet and will soon be considered in parliament.
“The law will provide a framework that will guide and provide oversight for the implementation of nuclear power plants according to international standards,”
said Kachapin. Such a framework is a necessary prerequisite to start the process for building a plant.
Kachapin also reported that Kenya is currently assembling all of the necessary infrastructure to begin construction of a 1,000 MW plant by 2022. Studies are underway, he said, on possible sites for the plant.
He emphasized that Kenya needs to have nuclear power to meet its goal of about 30,000 MW of electric generating capacity, a stunning order of magnitude increase from its current 2,400 MW of capacity. The country’s progress in its preparations has been given good grades by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Currently, South Africa is the only country on the continent with an operating nuclear power plant.
