Kenya’s Nuclear Power-station

### Reader’s Letter to The Guardian, 25th June 2024 ###

Dear Editor,

I read Caroline Kimeu’s article on opposition to proposals to build a power-station on the coast near Kalifi (The Guardian, 17th June 2024, link below) and strongly agree with the arguments (environment, debt, safety, economic and technical) as to why they should not go down this path.

But I believe that there are deeper insights revealed by this article …

In May 2023 Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, visited Kenya (Link below) to announce a raft of co-operative projects including plans for the generation of “Green Hydrogen” (for Germany), also mentioning that Kenya gets 90% of its power from renewable sources.

The news of the nuclear power-station tells us however, that the power available is (due to fluctuation in supply) not even adequate even for Kenya’s own domestic needs. The Germans may say that they would manufacture hydrogen (a highly energy-hungry process) during peaks in supply. But isn’t this the wrong approach? Surely, rather than a.) having a nuclear power-station and b.) exporting hydrogen (to Germany), we should be finding ways to store that energy so that neither of these things needs to be done and that renewable becomes adequate in its own right? If we fail to do this the whole premise of “renewable power” becomes untenable.

The next deeper insight is that, in the article, Justus Wabuyabo, CEO of the Nuclear Power and Energy Agency, says that nuclear power will be needed to provide a “base load” for industrialisation. This may be the case but it prompts the question as to why Kenya should be copying the “consumerist” west (i.e. ramping up production) rather than the rest of us instead dabbing on the brakes of our economies so that we too require less “base load” and can also make our renewable sources “adequate” … rather than “lacking”?

If we don’t step back and take a more balanced view, then what chance do we have of stopping climate-change?

PS: Indeed, with climate-change advancing at its current pace, there is a high probability that the whole beautiful coastline will be flooded and that a nuclear power-plant located on the coast will face Fukushima-type threats of meltdown.

Yours,
Alan Mitcham

Link to original article: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/17/kenya-plans-first-nuclear-power-plant-kilifi-opposition-activists

Chancellor Scholz’s visit to Kenya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntmJYiHnm-c