The Kenyan government has postponed the construction of the $10 billion nuclear power plant by nine years to 2036 in order to concentrate on renewable energy projects and coal plant. This is according to the new power development plan that has moved the date from 2027 to 2036.
the plans to include nuclear power in the country were driven by the need to increase power supply and propel industrialisation . “Nuclear was also proposed as a clean energy meaning that if we are a country that wants to industrialise we need nuclear,” said Kenya Nuclear Electricity Board (KNEB) managing director Collins Juma.
The New Timeline
The new set timeline of 2036 makes the nuclear power plant the final project in its 20-year plan for increasing power production.
The development plan reads in part: “All energy sources were considered in the system expansion planning. However, it is noteworthy that nuclear was not brought on board in both optimised and fixed MTP cases.”
The modified plan has also reduced the scale of the nuclear power projects where the capacity for each of the two plants has been reduced from 1,000MW to 600MW. Interestingly, the cost of each plant has increased from $4.05 billion to $4.84 billion.
South Africa recently halted plans to install 9,600MW of nuclear power by 2030 and has instead shifted its efforts to wind and natural gas energy.
The Africa Young Generation in Nuclear has a chapter in Nairobi called the Kenya Young Generation in Nuclear (KYGN), a non-profit organisation that offers professionals in the nuclear field mentorship and training. KYGN is allied to the International Youth Nuclear Congress (IYNC).