Ghana ready to implement nuclear power by 2029 – Dr Kwaku Afriyie

• Dr Kwaku Afriyie has stated that plans are far advanced to role out nuclear power in the country

• He said stakeholders have been consulted, and various feasible analysis have been made to ascertain the impact of nuclear energy on Ghana

• He also said the implementation would be in line with

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The Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation Dr Kwaku Afriyie has stated that the country is ready to implement Nuclear Power following efforts put together by stakeholders in the nuclear energy sector.

According to him, the country has overcome challenges and has made progress in ensuring that Nuclear Power is safe and sound to be rolled out.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2021 African Renaissance Day celebration on June 28, 2021, in Accra, Dr Afriyie stated that the country is working with sustainable development goal seven which seeks to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

“Nuclear energy is not new to Ghana. The theme for this year’s celebration, “Ghana readiness for Nuclear Power, best fits our contemporary energy discourse at this stage of our nuclear journey. Major factors influencing Ghana’s development plan with emphasis on, increasing demand for electricity and limited hydro as well as gas resources, need for the diversification of energy source to make Ghana’s energy portfolio much more resilient, climate change mitigation and industrialization (economic diversification and transformation),” he said.

He also said the government also established a committee under the chairman of late professor Adzei-Bekoe in 2007 to explore nuclear energy for electricity generation as a natural progression in the country’s technological advancement.

However, he said the country could have its first nuclear power in place by 2029.

“We should expect that education is going to come to the fore now that we are fairly ready and we have finished phase one and the steps that we have to take. You just heard that by 2029 we should have our first nuclear plant in place,” he noted.

Director of Nuclear Power Institute at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Dr Seth Kofi Debrah, proposed that Ghana needs a good base flow to rollout solar systems.

“People keep saying we should go solar which is very good but you need good base flow to actually put your solar on because solar is renewable and it is intermittent. The land size we need for a two-thousand-megawatt solar plant is over twenty thousand square miles and that must be strategically measured before it is rolled out,” he added.

Meanwhile, the African Scientific Renaissance Day is celebrated as the Day of Scientific Renaissance of Africa in accordance with the African Union resolution passed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in July 1987.

The day is being celebrated across Africa in remembrance of the continent’s great contribution to the rise and development of modern science and technology.

The 3-day celebration will end on June 30, 2021.