The government has affirmed Ghana’s readiness to include nuclear power as part of efforts to diversify the country’s energy mix and secure reliable, affordable electricity for industrialisation.
“Ghana has moved beyond aspiration and is prepared to pursue nuclear power,” Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources and Acting Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, said on Wednesday, August 19.
The Minister, who represented President John Dramani Mahama at the opening of the third US-Africa Nuclear Energy Summit in Accra, said: “We are ready. Ghana is in Phase Two of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s milestone approach for developing nuclear power infrastructure.”
Site studies, institutional strengthening, stakeholder engagement and discussions with technology vendors were all at advanced stages, he said.
The Minister noted that Ghana’s nuclear ambition must, however, go beyond building a reactor to developing the human capacity needed to operate and sustain the programme.
“Human capacity in itself is infrastructure. We, therefore, cannot build physical infrastructure today and hope to find the people tomorrow. We must build both,” he said.
Mr John Jinapor, the Minister of Energy and Green Transition, said nuclear power would play a “cardinal” role in Ghana’s energy mix as the country sought to meet rising electricity demand and support industrialisation.
He said Ghana’s peak electricity demand had risen from about 300 megawatts when the Akosombo Dam was commissioned to about 4,500 megawatts currently, while most of the country’s installed generation capacity now came from thermal sources.
Ghana was, thus, determined to diversify its generation mix to include natural gas, renewable energy and nuclear power to provide reliable, low-carbon and affordable electricity.
“Nuclear energy forms a critical pillar of this strategy,” Mr Jinapor said, adding that the country was progressing through the IAEA milestone approach with the objective of integrating nuclear capacity into the national generation mix.
He noted that Ghana and the United States were also making significant progress towards concluding a 123 Agreement on peaceful nuclear cooperation, with the agreement already initialled and awaiting the necessary approvals.
Dr Michael Goff, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the US Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, said the United States was committed to supporting Ghana and other African countries developing nuclear energy programmes.
The US, he said, had partnered with Nuclear Power Ghana to establish a Regional Energy Training Centre in Accra, providing training and technical exchanges covering reactor technologies, cybersecurity, quality assurance and spent fuel management.
“Our objective is not to provide individual training programmes. It is to build lasting institutional partnerships and technical capacity that can grow alongside Africa’s nuclear ambitions,” Dr Goff said.
Dr Humphrey Ayim-Darke, the recent past President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), called for Ghana’s nuclear power programme to be treated as a strategic national project capable of supporting the country’s long-term industrial transformation.
The programme, he said, required sustained and predictable investment, strong institutional commitment and collaboration among government, industry, development partners, investors and technical institutions.
Mr Joshua Ansah, the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, pleaded the Union’s support for the nuclear programme, explaining that the programme would depend not only on technology and financing but also on skilled labour, strong institutions and sustained public confidence.
He said a successful nuclear programme had the potential to support Ghana’s industrialisation, improve energy security, create jobs and contribute to long-term economic growth.
The three-day summit; from August 19 to 21, is being held on the theme: “Building and Sustaining Africa’s Nuclear Workforce.”
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