Nuclear Energy, not a better Alternative

I was astonished by Prof. Akaho’s claims of Ghana facing serious energy availability problems if nuclear energy is not introduced into our electricity generation and marveled at various comments made by certain individuals. It was obvious the distinguished Professor was just marketing the nuclear industry to the parliamentarians since he happens to be an influential stakeholder in that Industry and have special interest. It’s my hope that parliament will not rush into passing any energy bill to enhance nuclear power like we have seen them do in GT sale, ex-gratia and just to mention a few. There are other important issues about Nuclear Power that the professor kept mute on.

I salute the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission for their great works in nuclear medicine, agriculture and many other areas but to talk about Ghana’s need for nuclear power now,,,, may be considered as out of context. To start with, nuclear power requires millions of gallons of water a day for cooling their reactors. I am not here to scare anyone but you will not like to know what will happen when the temperatures of these reactors get off hand. I was just wondering which of our water bodies will meet this need: perhaps Densu, or Volta, or Ankobra or Bui. We do not have enough water to turn our turbines at Akosombo and for drinking purposes not to talk about millions of gallons of water for our proposed nuclear reactors. That apart, Let us takes a look at its initial capital cost for a HIPC country like Ghana, the long construction period of these reactors and the financial risks involved. We should also look at its expensive method of disposing spent fuel, capital intensive management of its liquid effluent and curie products; these are not one time investment cost but daily operational cost. After investing all these huge some of money, what we should be asking ourselves is how we are going to recover cost, in other words, who is going to buy the ten thousand (10000 MW) of power to be produce by this proposed nuclear plant. In securing loan for the construction of Akosombo, VALCO was then a ready market for energy from Akosombo and was therefore used as one of the guaranties for securing loan for constructing Akosombo dam. Which inustry in Ghana today or which Company are we planning to build to demand these ten thousands of mega watts to be produced by this proposed nuclear plant? Perhaps we are not thinking of exporting it because we are even struggling to transmit the few thousands mega watts we produce efficiently. Before we start discussion on Nuclear or before parliament start talking about policies to enhance nuclear power, we should strengthen our environmental protection agency, equip them to enforce our environmental laws, our emergency institutions should be well resourced and improve our distribution and transmission industry. I chose to be silent on Tritium leakages and other potential environmental risks because I do not want to be seen by Ghanaians as prophet of doom but let us also think of our capability of handling such emergencies as we talk about nuclear.

Let me not sound like a typical Ghanaian football fan who will criticize the coach’s tactics without making suggestions. There are numerous cost effective and environmental friendly energy sources which are feasible and sustainable in Ghana unlike nuclear power. Talk about Geothermal energy(energy right under our feet), geological science and engineering has been with Ghana for a long time hence moving in this direction will not be a problem at all, energy from biomass and many more alternatives. Let us put aside our personal interest and proposed policies of national interest and future benefits. To tell you the truth, sustainability of nuclear power in Ghana is far from reality.

Mike Quashie, Maq309@lehigh.edu Lehigh University.