- Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Energy William Owuraku Aidoo says the government will be announcing the new site for a nuclear power plant in the country.
The government will soon announce a site and vendor for the development of a nuclear power plant. According to the deputy minister Nuclear Power Ghana (NPG) has submitted a report to cabinet on four sites along the coast and five vendors after feasibility assessments to for review and approval.
“Recently steps are being taken to finalise the selection of a preferred site to Ghana’s first nuclear power plant. Last year , Ghana issued a Request of Information(RFI) as part of the required processes to identify a vendor country and nuclear technology.” According to the executive director of NPG Dr Stephen Yamoah, the Ministry of Energy issued Request for Information (RFI) to six vendor countries namely; China, India, Russia, USA, South Korea and France.
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“Currently, the RFI report is under review and government will soon announce a decision on vendor and technology,” said Aidoo.
He explained that the inclusion of nuclear power into Ghana’s national energy desk was not only in line with the government’s short to medium-term target of speeding up industrialisation but to deal strategically with current world challenges of climate change.
Additionally, Aidoo said the government had rolled out a number of programmes such as the establishment of the Ghana Nuclear Power Organisation programme in 2012 which included the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and agreements on the peaceful use of atomic energy.
The Executive Director of NPG Dr Stephen Yamoah said they were still on the second phase of the project which looked at the preparatory work for the construction of a nuclear power plant after a policy decision had been taken.
He stated that the expected deliverables at the end of the second phase would include “site approval report for site permit and site evaluation report for construction permit.”
Others are “vendor or technology selected, contract signed or under discussion, self-evaluation report for phase two Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR) mission and a project feasibility report.”
Yamoah said nuclear power as an option in Ghana was no longer a question of “can we do it,” but rather was about “when are we having nuclear connected to the grid.”
Author: Nomvuyo Tena
Nomvuyo Tena is a Content Producer at Vuka Group and is as passionate about the energy transition in Africa as she is about music and Beyonce.
This article was originally published on ESI Africa and is republished with permission with minor editorial changes.
