{"id":613,"date":"2025-06-10T08:49:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T08:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/etangonam.com\/?p=613"},"modified":"2025-06-10T08:49:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T08:49:52","slug":"namibia-weighs-nuclear-power-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etangonam.com\/?p=613","title":{"rendered":"Namibia Weighs Nuclear Power Options"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>SILVY DIERGAARDT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Swapo Government, under President Netumbo Netumbo-Nandi Ndaitwah, is pushing for Namibia to add value to its uranium locally and a nuclear power plant could be one such way to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During a recent visit to the R\u00f6ssing Uranium Mine, President Nandi-Ndaitwah said: \u201cNuclear energy is essential and the government will put in effort to make sure the environment is conducive for the mining sector to flourish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the Swapo Manifesto Implementation Plan, and within the Key Economic Enablers for Energy, a need has been identified to conduct a feasibility study to explore the development of a nuclear energy plant. A timeline of June 2026 has been attached to this development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Swapo manifesto stipulates the need to: \u201cTrain and develop professionals in the nuclear field as the foundation for Nuclear power generation to realise the production of medical isotopes, food production, and energy supply.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the NamPower tariff announcement by the Electricity Control Board, the CEO Robert Kahimise said the ECB was looking into the feasibility of creating a nuclear power plant to supply baseload energy of Namibia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFrom where we are, it (nuclear) does qualify to be dispatched as a baseload power plant. We can only advise the government on the advantages of nuclear power as we seek a sustainable supply of electricity,\u201d said Kahimise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Expert Opinions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Experts have weighed in on the possibility of nuclear production in Namibia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Gabi Schneider, the Executive Director of the Namibian Uranium Institute (NUI), said Namibia lacks skills needed to launch the production of nuclear energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Furthermore, she said the country\u2019s current electricity grid network will have to be updated to suit the size of the nuclear plant to be built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Namibia will also need to have the necessary agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNamibia\u2019s uranium, which is currently exported as uranium oxide, needs to be manufactured into a fuel format that can be loaded into a nuclear reactor and therefore, agreements with converters, enrichers and fuel manufacturers need to be in place,\u201d said Dr Schneider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">South African energy expert, Chris Yelland, also weighed in on the possibility of Namibia developing a nuclear power plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe demand for electricity in Namibia is really too low to justify a major investment in a large scale nuclear power. There are no immediate opportunities available for Namibia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, Yelland said there is a possibility for small scale modular reactors in the country, albeit a long way to be commercially available yet.\u00a0 Namibia is also exploring forming partnerships with countries that have pioneered nuclear power plants. The Russian government recently sent a high-level delegation to Namibia led by Deputy Prime Minister, Yuri Trutnev. Namibia has called upon Russia to collaborate on the local processing of Uranium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SILVY DIERGAARDT The Swapo Government, under President Netumbo Netumbo-Nandi Ndaitwah, is pushing for Namibia to add value to its uranium locally and a nuclear power plant could be one such way to do so. During a recent visit to the R\u00f6ssing Uranium Mine, President Nandi-Ndaitwah said: \u201cNuclear energy is essential and the government will put<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[31,33,34],"class_list":["post-613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-trends","tag-energy-news","tag-latest-news","tag-new-trends"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etangonam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etangonam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etangonam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etangonam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etangonam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etangonam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":615,"href":"https:\/\/etangonam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613\/revisions\/615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etangonam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etangonam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etangonam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}