As Ghana continuous to grapple with its energy needs with the dry season fast approaching some Ghanaian nuclear science students from the Tomsk Polytechnic University in Russia have called on President Akufo Addo to fast track Ghana’s efforts at building a Nuclear Power Plant.
Ghana in the last few days has seen persistent power outages at various parts of the country and Kweku Temeng of our business desk who travelled to Russia reports the students are prepared to put their knowledge acquired to good use by supporting the nation in putting up a nuclear reactor.
Ghana’s journey to nuclear can best be described as one that is still at a snail pace. The country’s first president Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah over five decades ago established the Ghana Atomic Energy with the vision of making nuclear energy accessible for domestic purposes. His vision after the establishment of the institute has suffered major setbacks as the country takes one step forward and two steps backward in the match towards adding nuclear power to its energy mix. Ghana’s nuclear dream was rejuvenated in 2006, thanks to the debilitating energy crisis at the time but was abandoned until 2013 when, another round of energy crisis pricked the conscience to start considering nuclear power as an alternative Thermal and Hydro power.
My quest to find out more on accessing nuclear power led me on a Rosatom Energy sponsored trip to Russia where i visited Tomsk Polytechnic University one of the leading nuclear science training institutes in the world. To my surprise i met Paul Atta Amoah, and Prince MacDonald Ghanaian Students who were trainig in nuclear science in Syberia. They had a message for the President on nuclear power as Ghana struggled for cheaper power.
Ghana rekindled its dream to establish a nuclear power plant alongside countries like United Arab Emirates and South Africa. But these countries are far advanced with their dreams of owning nuclear power plants. One of the major concerns of Ghanaians is a possible explosion or pollution, but Head of Laboratories for Radioactive Substances and technologies at the Tomsk Polytechnic University, Dr Vladimir Golovkov who tells GH One tv Nuclear Energy is relatively safe for energy generation.
