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Namibia plans for nuclear power
15/02/2008 20:17 - (SA)
Windhoek - Namibia hopes to construct a nuclear power station within ten years to ensure independent power supply in the face of a regional electricity crisis, a government official said on Friday.
"We are thinking of nuclear-generated energy," Joseph Iita, permanent secretary of the ministry of Mines and Energy said.
"The political position is already there, we are working with the Americans, the French and the South Africans."
South Africa's neighbours have long relied on cheap energy from the continent's economic giant and were caught off guard by the nation's own recent electricity crisis.
"The region has been spoilt," said Iita. "Now, it's over."
Namibia, the world's fourth biggest uranium producer, will shortly publish new regulations governing the civil nuclear sector, mining and electricity production.
And it planned a large-scale specialised training and capacity building programme.
"We know that it is a long-term undertaking," said the official, adding the high cost would be worth it in the end.
"This will take anything up to 10 years. There is nothing more expensive than the sovereignty of a country."
The alternative, he said, was "to have black-outs" like those experienced in South Africa in recent months.
Labelled a national emergency by the government, South Africa has had to cut electricity exports as large parts of the country is intermittently plunged into darkness through planned blackouts aimed at conserving dwindling supplies.
The commercial capital Johannesburg has been hardest hit, and analysts have warned of foreign investors taking flight as everything from mining and factory production to traffic regulation has been affected.
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