Page 8 - AfrElec Week 42

AfrElec NUCLEAR AfrElec
Nuclear power leads Russian engagement with Africa
AFRICA
THE Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi opened on October 23, with Moscow seeking to increase its engagement with Africa in a number of areas.
The power sector, especially nuclear, is a cen- tral plank of the Kremlin’s strategy, with Rosa- tom seeking to build on its existing 4,800MW nuclear construction project in Egypt to pick up development and advisory deals with a number of countries.
At the conference, Russia and Ethiopia signed an intergovernmental agreement to co-operate in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
The agreement creates a legal framework for joint projects in sectors from academia to healthcare and agriculture. Such a deal lays the regulatory groundwork for a range of areas in the nuclear sector, not just generation. This includes, medicine, legal drafting and engagement with international nuclear organisations.
“The African continent is one of our prior- ity regions and we see that this attitude could be called mutual. Many African countries are con- sidering joining the nuclear club in one form or another, whether it be construction of a nuclear power plant or a Centre for Nuclear Science and Technology (CNST),” said Rosatom’s first deputy director general for corporate development Kirill Komarov ahead of the conference.
Russia’s policy is to talk up nuclear pow- er’s potential to develop sustainable economic growth across the continent by providing affordable energy to a rising population.
“In Africa, Rosatom already has a long list of partners. We are actively working both in sub-Saharan Africa — Ghana, Zambia, Kenya, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tan- zania, Uganda and others, and in North Africa —Egypt,AlgeriaandSudan,”headded.
Zambia is a recent country to have signed up with Russia to build a CNST. This will feature a research reactor, a nuclear medicine centre and a multi-purpose irradiation centre, which will improve the safety of food products.
Rosatom is also looking to Africa to commer- cialise its small modular reactor (SMR) technol- ogy, which is currently used in its 80MW floating nuclear power plant the Akademik Lomonosov in the Arctic Sea.
“This is a very remote area with poor infra- structure, which, at the same time, has vast natu- ral resources, said Komarov.
“The floating nuclear power plant is an ideal energy option for this remote region with huge industrial potential. There are many such regions on the African continent,” he went on.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted leaders from more than 50 African states as Mos- cow aims to join US, the European Union and China as strategic players in Africa.
Natural resources, energy, education are all key areas, as are military co-operation and arms sales. Africa also offers Russia a new field on which to increase its global influence, alongside the Middle East. ™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 42 23•October•2019