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| Fig. 1: Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
South Africa is the only country in Africa that currently has a commercial nuclear power plant, with two reactors at the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. (See Fig. 1) Other countries in Southern Africa currently do not have any commercial nuclear power plants, but could benefit from them and use them as a solution to their energy needs. [1]
Many countries in Southern Africa have large Uranium reserves with mines or plans to build mines. Botswana currently mines Uranium at A-Cap Resources' Letlhakane project. [2] Malawi also has a Uranium mine in Kayelekera that operated until 2014 when the government of Malawi imposed a moratorium on applications and grants of all mining and exploration. [2] Canadian company Denison mines is also planning on building a Uranium mine in Mutanga, Zambia. [2]
Namibia and South Africa currently the two largest miners of Uranium in Southern Africa, with Namibia producing 3246 metric tons of Uranium in 2014, about 6% of the world's supply from mining, and South Africa producing 566 metric tons in 2014. [2] Namibia is the largest producer of Uranium from mining in Africa. [2] South Africa is also estimated to have 220 kg of highly enriched uranium, that it produced for nuclear weapons from 1977-1990 at the Y plant at the Pelindaba nuclear center. [3,4]
Although many countries in Southern Africa mine Uranium, none of them have the capability to enrich the Uranium to produce Low Enriched Uranium which is used in nuclear reactors like those in Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. Even South Africa which has a nuclear power station and mines its own Uranium, exports the ore and imports Low Enriched Uranium for use at Koeberg. Even though South Africa did enrich Uranium at Pelindaba nuclear center for use in its nuclear weapons, the plant has not been active since 1990. [4]
© Ammaar Adam. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] J. Little, "Can Nuclear Power Solve Africa's Energy Problem?," Physics 241, Stanford University, Winter 2019.
[2] "Uranium 2016: Resources, Production and Demand," Nuclear Energy Agency, NEA No. 7301, 2016.
[3] D. Birch and R. J. Smith, "U.S. Unease About Nuclear-Weapons Fuel Takes Aim at a South African Vault," Washington Post, 14 Mar 15.
[4] D. Albright, Highly Enriched Uranium Inventories in South Africa: Status as of End of 2014," Institute for Science and International Security, November 2015.
