State Minister for Energy, Simon D’Ujanga says a feasibility study is currently ongoing to determine the place at which the plant will be built and how much power it will be able to produce, but it will not be less than 1,000 megawatts.
Government has now given itself a deadline of 2030
for the first Uganda's nuclear power plant to be completed and in production.
This follows that completion of the Nuclear
Energy Policy which has now been integrated in the revised Energy Policy for
Uganda.
The idea to for Uganda to produce nuclear
energy for peaceful use, was mooted in 2012, and it targeted the use of locally
available uranium deposits.
In Africa, South Africa is the only known producer
of nuclear energy for commercial purposes. Egypt, which launched a nuclear power program in 1954, is 66 years later still
constructing a plant which would produce 4,800 megawatts at El Dabaa. Kenya targets to be producing nuclear energy in
2027.
Uganda's programme will be implemented in partnership
with the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation, ROSATOM, which has also
signed memoranda of understanding with Nigeria, Sudan and Zambia. Uganda approached Russia for help in the
industry in October 2016, to boost her Vision 2040 which provided for
production of 40,000 megawatts.
Nuclear energy is one of the most coveted cost-effective,
reliable and clean energy options. However, it has challenges that include a demand for
highly-skilled human resource, which Uganda currently does not have.
Miliko Kovachev, head of the Nuclear Infrastructure Development
Section at the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, says, “A successful
nuclear power programme requires broad political and popular support and a
national commitment of at least 100 years.”
According to the 2020 Energy Sector Performance Report, Uganda’s
nuclear energy will be used for electricity generation, cancer management, food
safety assessment, tsetse control, improving agriculture productivity, water resource
management and in industries.
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development says by the end
of this year, the country will have capacity to produce 2,000 megawatts of electricity,
which is double the current demand. However, it forecasts that in five years, demand will outstrip this
capacity, hence the need to steadily increase the capacity.
In his State of the Nation Address last year, President Yoweri
Museveni said the proposed plant would produce 17,000 megawatts by 2026. State Minister for Energy, Simon D’Ujanga says a feasibility
study is currently ongoing to determine the place at which the plant will be
built and how much power it will be able to produce, but it will not be less
than 1,000 megawatts.
// “Cue in: We are protracting…
Cue out:…appropriate time.”//
One other challenge the government faces is land acquisition for
mining the uranium, but also the building the plant which require vast land
areas. Aerial surveys show that Uganda has
about 52,000 square kilometers of uranium prospects, including in Ankole, Buganda,
Tooro, the Lake Kyoga region and the Lake Albert basin.
The sector performance report shows
that in the financial year 2021/2022, the ministry will make a final decision
on the site for the nuclear plant will be made, amid the implementation of the
bilateral agreement with Russia. They will also conduct preparations
for construction of the Centre for Nuclear Science and Technology.
