re posted from BUSINESS +FINANCIAL TIMES ONLINE
The African reactor for Africa is ready.
A number of African leaders are wisely leading their countries on the sensible path of determining an African solution for African conditions, and have come to the conclusion that small nuclear reactors are the answer
The SMR technology is here. We even have a reactor especially designed for African conditions, and that means all African conditions. We people living in africa know and understand the hot African sun, the violent rainstorms, the wide-open savannah, desert regions, long roads, and flooded rivers. The HTMR-100 was designed for all of that.
My African dream; nuclear power everywhere
By Kelvin KEMM (Dr)
Around the world, many countries are suffering from an electricity shortage. This is serious. It is serious because electricity is the basis of a modern GDP. Without energy, people are living in the Stone Age. Energy, in broad terms, is liquid fuels like petrol and paraffin, and also electricity. To make any sort of reasonable progress a nation needs these commodities. So, any sort of reasonable thought dictates that serious planning and contemplation must go into these vital building blocks of life.
First block: You cannot take a supposed ‘solution’ which has been proposed in a European country and then imagine that it will just work in Africa. Block 2: Think for yourself, and plan for your own conditions.
Let us get something clear; solar and wind can work for certain specialist functions, but you cannot run a country on solar and wind alone, or even as the major electricity source. Wind is good for a function like pumping water into a dam or reservoir because it does not matter at what time of the day you pump. Solar works for daytime electricity, ideally not connected to the grid at all, in in my opinion.
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