25 Sept (NucNet): Africa will need nuclear power to help drive economic development, one of the continent’s leaders has told the UN Security Council.
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda, which does not have a nuclear power programme, told other world leaders at the Security Council meeting in New York yesterday that even if all African rivers were developed as part of a hydropower programme, the combined generating capacity would only be an estimated 300,000 megawatts electric.
“Africa will have to use all sources of energy, including nuclear,” he added.
Nuclear industry leaders have said previously that nuclear technology can help developing countries such as those in Africa.
The head of Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, said last year: “One advantage of the nuclear energy industry is its ability to generate energy and to desalinate water at the same time.” He said this would be of particular benefit to African countries that are short of fresh water.
>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)
Areva To Mine Africa’s Largest Uranium Deposit (News in Brief No. 1, 5 January 2009)
PBMR Project ‘Slowed Down’ By Economic Crisis Says CEO (World Nuclear Review No. 37, 11 September 2009)
