Sobering thought for the day: Uganda may get a nuclear power plant before Australia gets one nuclear submarine:
Uganda is set to build East Africa’s first nuclear power plant after acquiring land for the project, according to Bloomberg. The Minister of State for Energy Okasai Sidronius Opolot announced the plans in a statement, but did not reveal where the site will be located.
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has said that Uganda and Africa are only interested in nuclear power for energy supplies like electricity, and not for nuclear weapons. “For us, we want that power for electricity, for agriculture and not for nuclear weapons,” he said. President Museveni was speaking at a meeting this week, with the delegation of International Atomic Energy Agency at State House Entebbe.
Would the world be a safer place if Uganda had a new high tech coal plant instead?
The West could make that happen.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has approved Uganda’s plan to build East Africa’s first nuclear power station.
He added that land had been acquired to build a 2GW facility, although he did not say where. The project would be part of Uganda’s aim of increasing generation capacity by almost 12-fold to 17GW in the medium term. In 2020, around 70% of Ugandans were still using wood fuel, in the form of firewood and charcoal, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, prompting concern over deforestation.
Judging by these preparations Uganda will need quite a lot of help.
In 2017, Uganda said that it wanted to build a 2,000 megawatt nuclear power plant by 2032. According to reports, Uganda has already trained 22 people at Master’s degree level in nuclear science, with the hope they will work at the landmark plant when it is built.
That many eh?
Africa wants energy. The West can leave that space open for other powers to fill or act like the world cultural and technological leaders that they are.
Off topic but important. At 6 am the SE of Australia is in a wind drought, 5% of power from wind, 75% from fossils and hydro 20%, way above average and not sustainable, draining the lakes.
SA is not importing but 80% of power from gas. The wind has been at drought level since breakfast yesterday.
Vic and NSW drawing 80% of power from fossils, Qld 90% (next to no hydro.)
WA is ok for wind, roughly equal contribution with gas and coal.
Full picture live display that will change!
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Greetings. And not much puff on the east coast either:
Flinders – Wind 64kW 7 %, Solar 19kW 3%, Diesel 873kW 90%
King – Wind 293kW 13%, Solar 5kw 0%, Diesel 1787kW 87%.
I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll not blow your green house of cards down because renewables are cheap and efficient – yeah right
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“Wind drought”.
Those of us in south-east Queensland have not entirely been enjoying your “lost” air movements.
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Belgium and Germany are phasing out nuclear power.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/in-2022-nuclear-powers-future-is-grimmer-than-ever/
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Re establishing coal stations instead.
Reconsidering their nuclear stations.
Germany is too small for wind and solar.
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“Uganda is set to build East Africa’s first nuclear power plant”
Gees, I hope the political situations remains stable. 😉
I mean, what could possibly go wrong !
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Should be alright, they are on the Belt and Road. The aim is to develop a strong middle class and then all petty grievances will be put aside.
There is good reason for Uganda to invest in nuclear power.
‘Uganda is developing nuclear power because hydropower alone will not be sufficient to meet national development targets, President Museveni said. In addition to electricity generation, nuclear energy will be used for “medical and agricultural purposes”, he added.’ (IAEA)
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The rest of the world pays for Japanese retirees. They have ample means and still live within it. The rest of world owes Japan about 12 months of their existing output.
China is at risk of growing old before becoming wealthy. The key prospect for China is Africa. Africa has the natural wealth and hordes of young people who could be put to work in the interests of China’s retirees. Those young Africans should benefit from the industry of the Chinese people and the vitality along with the natural resources they bring to the relationship.
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I mean, what could possibly go wrong!
Just over 3 years ago and a few miles south of Uganda everything was going swimmingly. With any luck the Ugandan nuclear technicians/scientists will have been trained at South African universities so as you say what could possibly go wrong.
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Australia is”Supposed”to be a first world country,yet WE are still arguing about nuclear????If these”Greenies”were fair dinkum(which they are NOT)we would have had it 20 years ago.If we keep up the way we are going,we’ll be back in the stone age in no time at all.
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Their fear of nuclear power is greater than climate change and its imbedded in the national psyche.
To understand how this came about in the first place its all down to the efforts of one woman, Helen Caldicott.
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Caldicott is 83 now and has been quiet lately but still has a website promoting terror of all things nuclear.
https://www.helencaldicott.com/
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‘The Australian paediatrician was named by the Smithsonian Institute as one of the most influential women in the world.’
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Is that plus or minus?
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It all started with soviet anti-nuke propaganda in the 1950s.
Well done Tovariches, you have well and truly earned your Order of Lenin. (With a side of Stalin, washed down with the blood of millions).
Are our rice-propelled new BFFs still busy in Uganda?
They were the folk who brought us Idi Amin and kept him in power using North Korean military muscle for years.
ALL must pay tribute to the “emperor”.
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That is all in the past, they are now an integral part of the BRI.
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Yes ..swapping 3rd World statis with Uganda !
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In the future, you will find Third World countries surpassing Australia in a lot of both positive aspects (e.g. nuclear energy) and negative aspects (e.g. incompetent government, poverty, further removal of human rights, political corruption, failure to develop, Chi-comm influence, food and fuel shortages etc.).
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To be clear, the negative aspects I mentioned are what I expect to happen in Australia. We will be worse than Third World countries.
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Thiird world countries have experience and know how to live without utilities..
We do not !
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The Chinese have a military base at Djibouti, just in case they need to control the Suez Canal. ( sarc) What could possibly go wrong in that area of the world ?
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The Chinese are building military bases or “civilian” ports all over the entire Info-Pacific area in order to achieve global maritime dominance.
Plus they are colonising Africa for food, minerals and slave labour.
The silence of the Left is deafening
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They are not colonising Africa, the BRI ia an attempt to uplift the people into the 21st century. Beijing reckons they can bring about an economic revolution.
Europeans colonised the continent for centuries and exploited those countries using the laissez faire economic model. None of that on this occasion.
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BRI is debt trap diplomacy. When the beneficiary cannot service the loans, the CCP takes over the asset as is happening in Sri Lanka.
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Dealing with corrupt governments is not easy, but if a legitimate government signs up for something that isn’t viable, then its their lookout.
The CCP is not directly involved, its the fault of the China Bank for lack of due diligence. There has been little trade at the new wharf.
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If you believe that the CCP is “not involved” in any and all activity beyond China’s shores, you are deluded.
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They are at arm’s length and have a strong belief in the capitalist system, but with a twist. This dictatorship knows how to uplift the masses and make a lot more money into the bargain.
‘The EACOP is currently under construction and, once completed, will transport crude oil from Uganda to Tanzania. It will be around 1,400 kilometers long and deliver around 216,000 barrels of oil per day.’ (Notrickszone)
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Take of your rose-coloured glasses el+gordo and have another look under sunlight.
It’s known as “colonization with Chinese characteristics”.
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Socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Rumour has it that they have penetrated the PSC, but I can’t confirm this.
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Taking off my rose coloured glasses, its not a good look.
https://factcheckhub.com/is-china-taking-over-ugandas-airport/
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Better put them glasses back on!
https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/china-puts-aggressive-terms-on-entebbe-airport-loan-researchers-3732882
Ivory smuggling and drug dealing?
Wonder where that goes to?
https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/inside-the-rot-at-entebbe-airport-1725656
Many more of this if you want.
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Thanks Dave, the new owners won’t stand for corruption.
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I fully support nuclear power but I don’t think it is the best choice for Africa due to high levels of mismanagement, political instability, corruption, failure of planning etc. in all endeavours and no tradition of efficient Western management styles.
South Africa does have two nuclear reactors at one site but these are efficiently and safely managed by French contractors from the company that built the plants.
Africa has vast coal reserves, they would be a better choice for Africa although the coal power stations of South Africa, which has the most coal power in Africa, have frequent downtime due to poor maintenance and management.
The UN and World Bank won’t allow Africans to have any new proper power production, only solar and wind, which of course are useless, so maybe this is a desperate attempt by Africa to get some proper nuclear power production, although I think inappropriate for Africa at this stage of their development.
South Africa actually wants to build another coal plant (as well as another nuclear) but is stopped from doing so, see:
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south-africa-taken-court-over-plan-new-coal-power-2021-11-17/
South Africa is getting paid to “transition from coal”. See:
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/us-eu-others-will-invest-speed-safricas-transition-clean-energy-biden-2021-11-02/
South Africa has about the same amount of coal power stations and capacity as Australia. Just as South Africa’s coal power stations are not properly maintained and they have regular power outages, watch the same thing happen to Australia as we descend into a self-induced Third World status.
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South Africa has trouble keeping the lights on using coal fired generators. Incompetent operations, management, corruption, maintenance & believe or not sabotage are among the worst of their problems. The Koeberg nuclear power station limps along, so far without any critical mishap, though there have been a few “close shaves”.
I’m not completely up to date on the latest state of the complex but the last I heard was that only1 out of 3 turbines are running. Let’s hope saboteurs don’t let loose here. Consequences will be deadly.
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My understanding is that Koeberg is competently managed by French contractors although they did recently have a “critical incident”.
https://www.news24.com/fin24/economy/eskom/human-error-at-koeberg-nearly-led-to-devastating-consequences-20220317
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I have friends & relations in Cape Town & their reports are different to the official reports.
Koeberg flies below normal scrutiny for obvious reasons.
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The critical word here is “nearly”. That’s the same as a meteor nearly hit the Earth missing by only 74000 miles. Or Joe Biden nearly winning the 2020 election missing out by only 5 million fraudulent votes.
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They have 22 more nuclear scientists than us then ?
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This should scare the pants of the globalists, a third world country braking their energy stranglehold. If a third world country can achieve energy independence any nation can.
The breaking of the energy shackles destroys their population reduction narrative.
Good on Uganda
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for another major pandemic out break to “adjust attitudes”.
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It’s so depressing watching Australia transition to Second World, and beyond that Third World status.
I had a meal in a pub last night, and looking around, it was pretty obvious that the Sheeple have absolutely no clue what’s going on…just how Government likes it.
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Uganda has Hydro Power potential – issue is more one of distributing it to rural areas. Also mini-solar possibilities. Nuclear costs are immense these days and then there is waste storage issue. My guess is a site by Lake Victoria-Nyanza if it ever gets built.
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It’s a myth that there are waste storage issues. Waste can be perfectly well entombed. Or it could be almost eliminated with breeder reactors.
The tragedy of the standard civilian nuclear fuel cycle is that the “waste” is buried containing about 90% or more of its original potential energy which could be extracted with breeder reactors but isn’t.
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It seems that Uganda’s nuclear power station will be built by Egypt. My guess is that the nuclear technology will come from China.
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Egypt is involved in solar and hydro projects, as well as other projects in Uganda as well.
I wonder what it is that Egypt wants from Uganda?
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/02/egypt-hands-over-solar-power-plant-uganda-amid-nile-dam-crisis
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Probably a “Belt & Road” financial agreement with the Chinese holding the Title Deeds to Uganda as security!
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Next door neighbour Tanzania gave the finger to the BRI, said the contract to build a port was exploitative. Instead the are dealing directly with the multinationals.
https://jpt.spe.org/tanzania-inks-deal-with-shell-equinor-for-30-billion-lng-terminal
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Uganda’s government obviously didn’t listen to Chris Bowen 🙂
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I’ve just watched the April 2022 Green’s Adam Bandt’s address to the Nat press club and it is even more stupid and delusional than you might expect.
Amazing that these clueless donkeys receive such a rapturous applause when you actually hear what they have to say.
If you can stomach this stupid nonsense just watch from about 5 minutes to 10 minutes. And this fool actually holds the seat of Melbourne in the house of Reps?
Andrew Bolt described this Bandt speech as “barking mad” and I fully agree with his description.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LlMd6YBuyY
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My god Neville, haven’t you got better things to do? Maybe less painful, like poking yourself in the eye or pulling a finger nail?
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Ross
Thank him for doing that and reporting back to us
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I agree Ross and my excuse is that I caught some of those barking mad tendencies from the Bandt loony and the enraptured luvvies at the press club.
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Neville, thank you for bravely watching and reporting back to save us from suffering.
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There is also the problem of the electorate which by all accounts are pretty dim. That is the only reason these “barking mad” politicians get into office!
Time to stop the electorate how “ canny” they are & how politicians can’t pull the wool over the eyes of the Australian electorate,
There is clearly a huge problem!!!
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Australia sure is a land of contradictions.
We are phasing out coal but export vast amounts so others can have inexpensive and reliable energy.
We are terrified of all things “nuclear” but are the world’s second largest exporter of uranium so others can have inexpensive and reliable energy.
However, we only export yellowcake, we don’t go the extra processing steps due to the “fear factor”. Kazakhstan, where Borat comes from, exports three times as much and also has better educational outcomes than Australia.
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If Africa must go nuclear rather than coal, gas or hydro where possible they should get small modular reactors of the type under development that are sealed maintenance-free units, except are eventually returned whole to the manufacturer for refurbishment.
The only reason I am against nuclear for Africa is the lack of political stability and management skill (except if Western contractors manage the facilities as for South Africa).
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Where have those small modular maintenance-free nuclear reactors been installed so far?
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Nigeria also planning Nuclear…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-01/transcorp-energy-plans-nigeria-s-first-nuclear-power-plants
Romoured to be using “Open 100” technology..
https://www.open-100.com/engineering
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Also more confirmation..
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Nigeria-moving-ahead-on%C2%A0nuclear-power-plant-plan
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Sometimes you just wonder eh!
Uganda has a population of 48.7 Million people, so almost double that of Australia.
Actual data (current to this
dayweekmonthyear) on electrical power generation is sketchy to say the least, but here’s what I could find.The current power generation for Uganda is around 4,800GWH (4.8TWH) of power a year. That’s around 2% of Australia’s total power generation.
So, all up, Uganda generates that 4.8TWH of power each year, you know, about forty percent of the total power consumed in ….. Tasmania, the smallest consumer by State here in Australia, and Tasmania has a population that is 540,000 people.
The addition of this one power plant might see the lights stay on in Kampala, but everyone outside of that city will still be using the primary energy source, artfully called Biomass, you know wood.
Tony.
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It is unlikely they would have much of a distribution grid , or the funds to construct one.
But there has been an effort to supply communities with localised solar systems for basic lighting etc.
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The anti-nuclear, anti-energy Left stopped Africa getting proper coal or gas power. So now they are going nuclear. Talk about the law of unintended consequences…
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The nuclear idea is optional and wouldn’t come to fruition for at least a decade.
Coal and gas is required now, they are going into steel manufacturing.
https://www.sustainable-carbon.org/uganda-to-import-coal-gas-from-tanzania-for-steel-production/
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Shamed by Uganda now! C’mon Aussie Gov stop being nongs. Take a gander at Uganda. Get the lead out. Power up with nuclear. And have the gumption to not ask permission from the Greens and Leftists.
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Hey, that can be the slogan for a conservative party at the next election (not LNP because they are no longer conservative).
Incidentally, I thought “gander” was Australian slang for “take a look” but apparently it has its origins in the US.
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Re: conservative party slogan.
How about, “Take a gander at Uganda, you goose.”
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Paltry puns
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I think Uganda would be better served by a new HELE Coal plant, but good luck to them.
BTW way here’s a few stats about Uganda from 1970 to 2022. In 1970 population was 9.4 million and today about 48 + million. That’s a 5 fold increase in just the last 50 years. THINK about that increase?
Life expectancy in 1970 about 49 years and today about 64 years. Life exp dropped to 44 in the 1990s, I think perhaps because of HIV AIDs and malaria.
Here’s the UN data for Uganda from Macrotrends site and many more very interesting statistics about the 53 countries in Africa.
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/UGA/uganda/life-expectancy
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With population growth like that, they really need more electrical power. A LED Television in every bedroom should help arrest the growth!
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Most of them would probably just settle for a bedroom to start with !
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Did you know Uganda is claimed to have lost its only international airport to the Chicomms under a debt for equity swap? (Some dispute that.)
https://youtu.be/_3DFzqYq_-Q
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Its true, the Exim Bank is a serious capitalist institution.
‘Uganda is facing the biggest national crisis as it has been forced to surrender its only international airport to China for failing to pay back the loan it had taken in 2015. It had borrowed USD 207 million from the Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank).
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They need to charge Chinese nationals $1,000,000 per annum for “working/residence visas”.
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What happens if Uganda says the can’t repay the loan but also tells the Chinese to go whistle?
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It appears that something very strange is happening to the electricity supply in Queensland today:
https://wattclarity.com.au/articles/2022/06/13june-constraintviolation-voltagecollapse/
To quote a comment from Allan O’Neil from that link, “Queensland looks to be short of sufficient generation capacity that has been bid available + secure imports to meet demand. The five constraints shown in the screenshot are being exceeded in order to allow enough flows in from NSW on QNI and Directlink. However this means that the system is technically not in a secure state …”
Typically, generation capacity needs to be at least 15% above forecast demand. That extra generation capacity accounts for transmission losses. If available capacity drops close to 10% above forecast demand, things can become dicey. Which is why AEMO sent out this follow-up notification this morning:
https://wattclarity.com.au/articles/2022/06/13june-aemos-forecast-for-load-shedding-in-qld-on-monday-evening-grows-more-severe/
As this article states, the amount of load shedding that may be required this evening in Queensland amounts to ¼ of Brisbane’s normal consumption.
I hope nothing untoward happens to the grid tonight, because the consequences could be severe, or as the first link put it, “more catastrophic, and longer to recover from (more like the SA System Black)”.
Does anybody else wish for the days when politicians were being chastised for their lack of action on the non-existent climate crisis?
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Actually, something like that MUST happen, it’s the only way to make people wake up.
Then again, knowing Australia, the response might be that it’s “evidence” that we need even more solar and wind…
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Managed outages and load shedding probably wont happen in Winter if the split of heating is gas and electricity. Not sure what Qld is like, but the southern states have more gas heating by proportion. The problem for electricity supply will be in the summer. When the whole east coast suffers a heat wave for a long period eg. week. There is no other choice other than electricity for air conditioning etc. That’s what happened in Victoria a few years ago, when we had hot spell and a coal unit went down. Rolling blackouts, industrial users told to stop production etc. Happened in late January. The last 2 years in Victoria ( at least) we have had relatively cooler summers and I think dodged bullets.
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From looking at the ANERO data, it seems QLD has dramatically curtailed solar generation.
Either due to cloud of some common ?? Technical issue ?
… oh, and Wind is delivering nothing currently !
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G’day Pauly,
Here’s the ABC “Just In” version:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-13/qld-nsw-power-electricity-blackouts-lack-of-reserve-aemo/101148474
The regulation they invoked is new to me.
Cheers
Dave B
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Hi Dave!
Several different rules involved. I suspect the main one you are interested in is the Cumulative Price Threshold that invoked the $300/MW cap. Best explained in the following post:
https://wattclarity.com.au/articles/2022/06/12june-qld-cumulativepricethreshold/
As the notice from AEMO indicates, the CPT is set to a cumulative value of $1,359,100.00 for 2016 trading periods. Since the NEM uses 5 minute bidding periods, that trading period converts to the last 7 days. So it works as a rolling indicator of persistently high electricity prices.
The problem for AEMO is that their administrative cap of $300/MW might have worked well last year when the cost of generating electricity was under $100/MW, but it’s imposition on Sunday evening caused a cascade of QLD generators choosing not to bid any capacity, because their costs had already breached this level.
That exacerbated the problem for Qld, as the high prices for electricity were actually a result of very little excess generation capacity, the start of which can be traced back to the incident that took Callide B off line last year. As the first link in my top comment shows, the NEM’s management software was unable to find a “solution” that could “fix” Qld’s problem, and was consequently running the Qld-NSW interconnectors at greater than safe capacity.
Invoking the CPT rule in Qld also seems to have had the unintended result of escalating electricity prices in NSW, which hit the same CPT limit on Monday:
https://wattclarity.com.au/articles/2022/06/13june-nsw-smashes-past-cumulative-price-threshold/
The cascading effects of this “rule” do not appear to have been well considered. It reminds me of the actions of the Wivenhoe Dam operators who opened the flood gates too late. They may have saved the dam, but the timing of their decision flooded Brisbane.
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The UN is trying to impose “green hydrogen” on Africa.
https://www.un.org/osaa/news/green-hydrogen-%E2%80%93-viable-option-transform-africas-energy-sector
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Maybe Africa can send a green mamba to the UN. Fair trade. The mamba should be quite annoyed when it gets there…
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I doubt Uganda will find the money to build any kind of power station. Unless they invite China in.
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Even Prof Ian Plimer is running foul of the true Green BELIEVERS and some in the Catholic church.
Again just unbelievable but true.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/06/12/exposing-the-modern-green-religion-published-in-catholic-standard/
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The term ” climate denier ” might be the best single example of Orwellian doublespeak ever encountered.
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On 24 March 2022 The United Arab Emirates announced the completion of unit 2 of the Brahah Nuclear Plant to increase total output to 2,800 Megawatts.No fuss , no bother and worth Googling to see how they went about the task of selling the Nuclear proposal idea.
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Qatar did themselves a nice 2500MW CCGT plant from Hitachi for $3 billion in 2016. Completed on time, on budget. It also desalinates water.
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More on the energy mess we are creating if we continue to vote for loony pollies from now on.
China, India, Russia and other developing countries are too smart to fall for these very obvious con tricks but not so the OECD loonies.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/06/12/energy-crisis-is-a-taste-of-what-the-iea-has-in-store-for-us/
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uganda’s government must be a lot smarter than western governments
as they clearly understand the need for baseload power
and the uselessness of unreliables.
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It’s probably more a case of Ugandan politicians angling for generous kickbacks on construction projects. Rule of thumb in similar SE Asia situations is that at least 30% of the cost of any project goes to graft, bribes, ” permits “, Minister of Energy’s favourite mistress’ latest shopping trip to Paris, etc.
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Qld at risk of blackouts amid price cap
The national energy market operator is having to direct electricity generators in Queensland to switch on plants to avoid blackouts, after the introduction of controlled prices in the state left some generators unprofitable.
Despite the orders, Queensland is at risk of potential blackouts later on Monday because of a deficit in supply, the Australian Energy Market Operator signalled, by forecasting a level-three “lack of reserve” notice.
“The wheels seem to have fallen off the energy market,” said power market watcher Paul McArdle at specialist information service Global-ROAM. He noted AEMO has forecast that 1454 megawatts of demand could be “interrupted” at 5.30pm, a load “about the size of Brisbane”.
An extended period of extreme electricity prices triggered a rarely-used cap on wholesale power prices in Queensland on Sunday evening, of $300 a megawatt-hour.
“As a consequence of the administered price cap in Queensland, AEMO has seen generation bids reduce and has issued Lack of Reserve (LOR) notices in both Queensland and New South Wales, signalling a reduction in pre-determined electricity reserve levels,” AEMO said in a statement on Monday.
“To maintain power system security and reliability, AEMO has directed some generators to continue meeting consumers’ demand to improve reserve conditions. At this time, there is no impact to consumer supply.”
[SNiped due to copyright but thanks Old Ozzie. – Jo]
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Usually cooking on burners hooked to deliverable propane gas cylinders is the next stage up from cooking with wood/charcoal/dung in the evolution of third world kitchen practices. Of course Uganda may buck this trend and go straight to Miele Induction Cooktops. MasterChef Uganda franchise enquires welcomed.
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Poor people obviously haven’t heard of how cheap and reliable solar and wind is, otherwise they’d be doing that of course.
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Good luck to Uganda with Nuclear Energy. They will need plenty of help.
Coal would be simpler, cheaper and quicker in the short term.
Also of course potentially safer.
But anything is better than wind and solar . .
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https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/brisbane/queensland-nsw-face-possible-power-blackouts-tonight-as-regulator-warns-of-load-shedding-to-protect-network/ar-AAYohME
Ordering generators to run will hit the retail price but not the wholesale. Actually it would not make much difference to the wholesale price in NSW. It was $15,000/MWh a few minutes ago.
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