Stakeholders Rally Ghanaians to Support Gov’t’s Nuclear Power Program to Transform the Energy Sector

Ghanaians have been urged to throw their full weight behind the country’s agenda to diversify its energy mix through a Nuclear Power Program to drive the needed socio-economic growth and development.

Nuclear Power is seen as one of Ghana’s surest bet to transform the country’s energy sector due to its enormous benefits.

The call was made at the Stakeholders’ Engagement on Nuclear Power Ghana Limited’s Draft Bill on Tuesday in Accra. The engagement brought together experts, Civil Society Groups (CSOs), government officials, the media and other stakeholders to discuss pertinent issues in the draft to shape it into a better and fit-for-purpose law for the country’s nuclear agenda.

Ghana’s Nuclear Power Agenda: The History

Ghana’s nuclear power journey began in the early 1960s under President Kwame Nkrumah, who envisioned using nuclear technology to support national development. In 1961, he launched the Kwabenya Nuclear Reactor Project and established the Ghana Atomic Energy Committee, which evolved into the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) in 1963.

However, the 1966 military coup halted progress. After a failed attempt in 1973 to acquire a research reactor, Ghana successfully commissioned the Ghana Research Reactor-1 (GHARR-1), a 30 kW Chinese-built reactor, in 1994 for research, training, and isotope production.

Following a major energy crisis in 2007, Ghana revived its nuclear agenda by forming the Ghana Nuclear Power Programme Organisation (GNPPO) in 2012 and formally including nuclear energy in its national energy policy. An act was passed to establish the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) in 2015 to deal with regulatory issues after the IAEA was notified.

In 2018, Nuclear Power Ghana (NPG) was established as the owner and operator of Ghana’s first proposed Nuclear Power Plant and was officially registered as a Limited Liability Company. By 2024, five vendors, including firms from France, the U.S., China, South Korea, and Russia, had submitted bids to construct a NuScale Small Modular Reactor.  Ghana has signed an agreement with two countries, the US and China, targeting its first commercial nuclear power plant by 2034.

The Nuclear Power Ghana Limited’s Draft Bill

The bill, which is currently at the stakeholder engagement stage, seeks to establish the Ghana Nuclear Power Corporation that will develop, construct, own, operate, maintain, and decommission nuclear power plants. The ultimate purpose for these activities set out in the bill, is to provide a base load of electricity for social and economic development and industrial transformation.

According to the draft bill, the corporation, if established, will plan, execute, and manage nuclear power plant projects while ensuring the safety and maintenance of plant installations, radiation sources, storage points, and waste management.

The Need for Nuclear Power

Chairman for the Stakeholder Engagement on the draft bill, Ing. William Amuna, a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GRIDCo and the current Board Chairman for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), noted that the need for Ghana’s energy mix to be diversified makes nuclear power imperative.

He also argued that the quest for energy security also makes a strong case for the country to go nuclear. He maintained that nuclear power is stable and reliable relative to crude. He added that it is cleaner since it reduces carbon emissions and is highly environmentally friendly amid concerns of the green transition.

Although Ing. Amuna recognized that its initial cost of establishment is highly capital intensive, the economic benefits are enormous. Nuclear power in the long term, he says, provides cheaper energy and attracts investors. He called on all stakeholders to support the bill and ensure its passage.

On his part, Deputy Minister for Energy and Green Transition, Richard Gyan Mensah, also reiterated the need to diversify the country’s energy mix to build a resilient and sustainable power to drive industrialization.

Admitting that he was initially apprehensive about the safety of nuclear plants, he confessed that his experience in the UK, where a nuclear power plant has been sited within a community without any safety concerns, “converted” him.

He noted that a significant number of the safety issues associated with nuclear energy are myths. For him, Ghana’s current socio-economic development trajectory demands a stable and reliable supply, which nuclear power provides.

He is therefore calling on all Ghanaians to support this agenda which has the potential to transform the country’s economic fortunes.

CEO of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, in his remarks expressed his anticipation that he is looking forward to the day Ghana generates electricity from nuclear for commercial and industrial use.

According to him, such a milestone can help the country reduce its importation of crude products, reducing the pressure on the local currency and shielding the economy from external shocks.

Concerns of Stakeholders on the Draft Bill

After an interactive and fruitful discussion on the bill, major concerns raised on the bill included the perceived politicization of the appointments to the proposed Ghana Nuclear Power Corporation. Some stakeholders asserted that the parts of the bill that give the power to the President to appoint the CEO, board, and staff of the corporation might result in appointing politicians who might lack the requisite skill in such a sensitive venture.

Others also raised concerns about the management of the funds of the corporation, especially the waste management and decommissioning funds making suggestions on how best the bill can improve on that.

Financing of the program also came up forcefully, as some participants wanted a clear-cut path to funding the projects under the program. Other concerns were safety and security, as well as international standards.

At the end, the committee working on the draft bill assured all the stakeholders that the concerns raised would be highly considered to improve the bill.

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