Disband nuclear electricity board, explore other options

Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter (right) with Collins Juma, the acting chief executive officer of the Kenya Nuclear Electricity Board, in Nairobi on March 14, 2017. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The best thing to do now is to immediately disband the Kenya Nuclear Electricity Board and give the folks who run it other jobs.
  • One wonders what they have been doing since 2012 when it was created.

The pursuit of nuclear energy in Kenya reminds me of the short verse by poet Ogden Nash that goes: “The Lord in His wisdom made the fly / And then forgot to tell us why”. It is difficult to understand the fervour with which some people are chasing nuclear plants on our soil. It is true that this clean source of energy has its advantages, but that is not enough. After all, when we get one in 2021 and commission it in 2027, there will be no more blackouts like the one that caught me while writing this piece.

In fact, were to I be asked, it would be most gratifying to live in a world where there are no annoying electricity outages. Yet I’m harassed by doubt. I think a nuclear power plant is a bad idea because it is bound to turn into the poet’s fly. Why do we want a creature that will merely impoverish us or destroy some poor lakeside town with radioactive waste?

It is not as though we lack the resources to generate cheap clean energy. Kenya is endowed with vast geothermal energy potential, for instance. To attain self-sufficiency in power supply, we only need to exploit that resource in full. Then there are other sources like solar energy. When I hear experts argue that solar is too dependent on the vagaries of weather, I ask myself where they are coming from.

NINE MONTHS

We live in a region of the world where the sun shines practically nine months in a year. Trapping the sun’s rays for conversion into energy to add to the kilowatt hours in our national grid should not be such a difficult job. Certainly, it would not cost the Sh500 billion that one nuclear reactor is likely to cost. This kind of money, if invested in agriculture would ensure some measure of food self-sufficiency in a very hungry nation.

Has anyone ever asked themselves how the Nordic countries have managed to harness solar power, considering that they are under a sheet of snow for a substantial part of the year? With adequate storage, the power generated by the sun would be enough to light us up for years on end and it is inexhaustible – in fact, the sun is getting hotter with each passing year due to global warming.

It is true that our reliance on hydro and geothermal energy is unsustainable for these resources are finite, but we really should rethink this idea. It is possible that one day we might be forced to do something drastic to replenish our energy sources, considering that our dams and water sources are drying up due to global warming, but there are many other options.

Three things stand out here. For some considerable time, many countries have been tripping over themselves trying to sell the idea of nuclear energy for Kenya. They include Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and Slovakia. Surprisingly, Japan is trying to wean itself away from nuclear energy and going all green. So are European countries like Italy and Germany. Why on earth should we being going the opposite direction?

EXTREMELY DIFFICULT

The second thing is that even the most advanced countries find it extremely difficult to get rid of the radioactive waste produced as uranium splits. Considering that many of our local governments seem to be clueless about effective solid waste disposal – just consider the amount of human waste regularly spilling onto our streets from burst pipes – where is the guarantee that the same thing won’t happen in a nuclear power plant? The mind boggles.

The third consideration is that Kenyans are notoriously poor at maintenance. Even if foreigners run our plants, they can’t do it forever. While it’s true that potential partner governments are offering young scientists scholarships in that field, this benevolent gesture may still not be enough. One small mistake and huge swathes of this country will be rendered uninhabitable. Remember what happened in Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986 and in Fukushima, Japan, 25 years later. Up to now, the people who lived near those plants have never resettled there.

There are many other reasons I think our priorities are lopsided in this regard, and the best thing to do now is to immediately disband the Kenya Nuclear Electricity Board and give the folks who run it other jobs. One wonders what they have been doing since 2012 when it was created.