Author: William Nana Beeko || Chief Editor
The Executive Director, Nuclear Power Ghana (NPG), Dr. Stephen Yamoah addressing a 3-day sensitization workshop for selected journalists on Nuclear Power, has revealed that Ghana is currently at the second phase of its Nuclear power exploits.
The workshop which opened on Tuesday is on the theme “Nuclear Safety, a Public Fear and Concern.”
According to Dr. Yamoah, the second phase of Ghana’s Nuclear Power project involves the preparatory work for the construction of a nuclear power plant.
Nuclear Power Ghana (NPG) was established in 2018 to operate Ghana’s first Nuclear Power generation plant.
In July 2019, NPG was duly registered under the Companies code of Ghana as a Limited Liability Company to pursue the Nuclear Power agenda.
Since that time, the NPG has been involved in various initiatives meant to prepare and secure the necessary infrastructure and further ensure the requisite frameworks to back its Nuclear exploitation.
He stated that the expected deliverables at the end of the second phase would include a “site approval report for site permit and site evaluation report for construction permit.”
Others are “vendor or technology selected, contract signed or under discussion, self-evaluation report for phase two Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR) mission and a project feasibility report.
Dr. Yamoah, therefore, said nuclear power option in Ghana was no longer a question of “can we do it,” rather was about “when are we having nuclear connected to the grid.”
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Bui Power Authority(BPA), Samuel Kofi Dzamesi in a speech read on his behalf said the country needed sustainable power to support industrialisation.
On his part, the Deputy Minister of Energy, Mr. William Owuraku Aidoo confirmed that the NPG has submitted a report on four sites along the coast and about five vendors after feasibility assessment to cabinet for review and approval.
“Recently steps are being taken to finalise the selection of a preferred site to Ghana’s first nuclear power plant. Recently, Ghana issued a Request of Information (RFI) as part of the required processes to identify a vendor country and nuclear technology.”
“Currently, the RFI report is under review and the government will soon announce a decision on vendor and technology”, Mr Aidoo said.
He further explained that the inclusion of nuclear power into the national energy desk was not only in line with the government’s short to medium-term target of speeding up industrialisation but to deal strategically with current world challenges of climate change.
Additionally, Mr Aidoo said the government had rolled out a number of programmes such as the establishment of the Ghana Nuclear Power Organisation programme in 2012 which included the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and agreements on the peaceful use of atomic energy.
The Deputy Energy Minister said the government was committed to ensuring that the country’s vision of attaining a nuclear energy transformation became a reality, and urged participants at the workshop to explore positive ways of supporting the project.
