Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
     Chipala has admitted that nuclear power plants are not cheap. However, he said that both Russia and China have indicated that they are interested in helping to fiancé any nuclear power projects in Zambia which hopes to have an operating nuclear power plant in the next ten to fifteen years.
     Egypt intends to begin the construction of its first nuclear power plant in July with the assistance of Russian financing.
    Gillane Allam is an ambassador from the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs. He recently said at a conference that adopting nuclear power in Africa would help end power cuts that were crippling economies across the continent.
    Akachukwu Okafor is a principal partner for Change Partners International, an energy and sustainability consultancy in Nigeria. He said that while nuclear power might not be the only answer to Africa’s problems, he did believe that it could be part of the answer along with renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. What will work to solve problems varies from country to country.
    Some African countries are considering nuclear power as part of a broader effort along with wind and solar to expand their power grids in a low-carbon way. Kenya and Ethiopia are members of this group.
     Benson with Power for All said that off-grid renewables projects are a smart choice for cash strapped African nations because they do not require expensive connections to the national grids. This will be critical in expanding energy access to the one third of African who do not have such access. He also said, “Given that close to 80 percent of Africans reside in rural areas, decentralized renewable energy makes sense.” Solar energy is also safer than nuclear energy because there is no environmentally hazardous spent nuclear fuel and no huge up-front expenditure to fund construction.
    Lassina Zerbo is the executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. He pointed out that any investment in nuclear technology in Africa will need strong cooperation with neighboring countries, a culture of transparency and accountability and a willingness to work together to deal with technological and security issues. He added that a lack of cooperation among African nations is one of the major challenges that is hold back efforts to establish commercial nuclear power generation on the continent.
      Colin Namalambo with the African Commission on Nuclear Energy said that there is a great need to establish legal frameworks in Africa before African nations should venture into nuclear energy production. This would include nuclear non-proliferation, safety and security.
     The scandal in South Africa over secret dealings with Russia to sign a contract for the construction of a nuclear power plant caused turmoil last year and almost brought down the government. There are serious questions with the respect to the need to construct huge centralized nuclear power plants in view of the fact that many of African nations do not have a widely distributed reliable national grid that would carry electricity to those who need it.
     There are also critical questions about the political leverage that goes along with financing nuclear power projects. Russia and China would gain an enormous amount of power over the domestic and foreign policy policies of any nation where they financed nuclear power.