Ghana is envisioning nuclear energy generation to account for 30 per cent of the country’s energy mix by 2070.
The President of the West African nation, Nana Akufo-Addo, who revealed this last week at a state of the nation address, said the country had aimed at introducing nuclear power in the generation mix to get clean and affordable electricity to drive industrialisation in order to address the issue of unemployment.
“It is also meant to position Ghana as a net power exporter in the ECOWAS region through the West African Power Pool,” he said.
He stated that his remark was an extension of what he said at the US-Africa Nuclear Energy Summit and the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Co-operation (IFNEC) Ministerial Conference, which took place in Accra last November.
“We have committed ourselves to the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” he added.
Ghana is hoping to start the construction of its first nuclear-powered plant by 2030.
Currently, the Nuclear Power Ghana (NPG), the entity spearheading the country’s nuclear power project, has identified a suitable site for the project in the Central and Western regions.
The country is yet to announce the vendor country and the technology – either SMR or large reactors for the project.
Nuclear energy comes from splitting atoms in a reactor to heat water into steam, turn a turbine and generate electricity.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, nuclear is a low-carbon emitting source of energy apart from being a clean, reliable, affordable, and modern energy source.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com