By Tawanda Kanhema Harare
Aouthern Africa is facing energy shortages as climatic changes intermittently turn off the switch on hydroelectric power generation and oil prices remain exorbitantly high.
As regional energy powerhouse South Africa ponders uranium enrichment, there is need to explore whether other uranium-producing African countries that are still in the dark on alternative sources of energy, can take a bite of the "yellow cake" (energy rich uranium oxide) and generate nuclear energy.
The Southern African Development Community region is confronted by crippling power shortages blamed on droughts that have lowered water levels in dams powering hydropower stations, and besides cutting down on the region's economic growth, power shortages are retarding investment and threatening expansion plans of companies that have invested in the region.
Africa"s ongoing energy crisis, probably the biggest and most imminent threat to economic growth, comes at a time a greenhouse gas weary world is experiencing a renaissance in the nuclear energy and uranium mining sectors, and some countries look set to light the nuclear candle.
In Tanzania, the energy crisis came to a point where urbanites had to endure 18-hour power cuts and some industrialists were considering closing down after water levels in the Mtera Dam fell below the permitted power-generation level of 690 cubic meters last year.
Tanzanian power utility TANESCO’s hydro and thermal power stations have a capacity of 447 megawatts, almost half of the country’s total energy demands.
Tanzania is among the newcomers to the global uranium exploration and mining drive, with significant energy rich uranium deposits along the Mkuju River being explored by Australian uranium concern Mantra Resources.
In other countries across southern Africa, power cuts and blackouts have become commonplace due to the widening gap between energy generation capacities and demand, and this has led to a frantic search for cleaner and more reliable sources of energy.
Zimbabwe has had plans to invest in nuclear energy since the 1990s, and there were plans to acquire a nuclear reactor from Argentina to process uranium, which was discovered in the Kanyemba area close to the country’s border with Zambia and Mozambique.
President Mugabe is on record as having said the uranium deposits discovered in Zimbabwe would go a long way in enhancing the Government’s rural electrification programme.
Zimbabwe currently requires a daily supply of 2 100 megawatts, but generates only 400 to 450 megawatts from its hydroelectricity and thermal power stations. However, a senior official in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development told The Herald that nothing much had been done to pursue nuclear energy in Zimbabwe, adding that the ministry was looking at other forms of renewable energy.
The world currently has 440 nuclear reactors, consuming an estimated 171 million pounds of uranium per year. In 2005, all of the world’s uranium mines combined produced an estimated 102,5 million pounds, leaving a 68,5 million pound deficit, and this has driven the price of uranium up and brought countries like Niger and Namibia back into the global energy equation.
With more than 30 percent of the world’s uranium deposits in Africa, a number of European, American and Australian companies are in a scramble to establish uranium mines and nuclear reactors in the region to make up for this deficit and match their rising demand for the "white hot metal", while also investing in the energy sector.
The new African countries to join the booming global uranium trade are Tanzania — Mkuju River concession, Mozambique — Mavuzi concession, Zimbabwe — Kanyemba concession, Guinea, Zambia — Kariba Valley concession, Madagascar, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Uganda and Algeria.
Most of the countries above, including Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Malawi are facing energy problems that would easily be solved by establishing programmes to enrich their own uranium and setting up national or joint regional nuclear reactors to meet their energy demands.
A Russian energy firm, Vneshtorgbank recently disclosed plans to set up a nuclear reactor and generate electricity in Namibia, set to be Africa’s biggest producer of uranium. Vnestorgbank and Tenex recently got licenses to prospect and produce uranium in Namibia. Namibia’s oldest producer of uranium oxide, R ö ssing Uranium Limited, has been going since 1975 and recently stated that the life of the mine has been extended beyond 2009.
R ö ssing exports between 4 and 5 000 tonnes of U308 per annum and accounts for some seven percent of world production.
South Africa already produces six per cent of its electrical energy (about 900 megawatts) from the Koeberg nuclear plant in Cape Town, and the government recently disclosed plans to resume uranium enrichment and establish "pebble-bed" mini-nuclear reactors.
South Africa is ranked fifth in world uranium reserves and number 16 in the world on electrical energy generation capacity.
The four to six new reactors are expected to produce an additional 5 000 megawatts over the next 25 years and reduce the gap between growth in energy demand and supply. The country currently generates nearly half of Africa’s electrical energy, more than 44,7 megawatts.
However, concerns have been raised whether all African countries looking for a way out of the energy squeeze can pursue uranium enrichment without the risk of creating supplies for illicit trade in weapons grade material that would end up in the hands of countries involved in controversial uranium enrichment programmes.
The challenge for the rest of Africa is to address the heightened security concerns, since the process of uranium enrichment involves technology precariously close to that required for making nuclear weapons.
"First, these African countries are in dire need for development, so if uranium mining emerges as a strategic area of focus to help with their development agendas, they will seize the opportunity, especially that the demand for uranium is soaring," observed Dr Nyambe Nyambe, a consultant at Namibia’s Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources.
Dr Nyambe noted that uranium enrichment and construction of nuclear reactors in Africa would require very tight Environmental Impact Analyses and environmental management strategies to avoid contamination of water sources, radiation and other forms of pollution.
"Mining experts will tell us that they would extract uranium from underground rocks using environmentally benign chemical processes. This may be true, but one has to be cautious to treat every case as unique. As with mining in general, contamination posed by uranium mining could be controlled if the design is done correctly. EIAs would be needed, but one wonders the extent to which pollution can be avoided given the troubled history of mining in general and uranium mining in particular," he said.
Dr Nyambe gave an example of the poor environmental management systems of the present mines of cobalt, copper, lead and zinc, which are scattered around southern Africa and the Zambian town of Kabwe, which was named as one of the top 10 dangerous places to live in because of contamination from old mines.
"We will have to work 200 percent better than we have done so far to curb contamination."
Australian Company OmegaCorp is reported to have obtained licences to mine the Kariba project in Zambia, the Kanyemba project in Zimbabwe and the Mavuzi concession in Mozambique. OmegaCorp operates in the region through its subsidiary, Mantra Resources.
In the Kariba Valley, a company called Africa Energy Resources, a subsidiary of Australian firm Australian Energy Ventures, is understood to have started drilling in May 2006, and there are other Australian companies conducting further exploration.
So far, Paladin Resources, one of the world’s biggest uranium mining companies, has clinched a 10-year deal to mine uranium at Kayelekera in Malawi, and at least four other mining deals are awaiting approval in Namibia, ranked as Africa’s second largest producer of uranium.
Malawi approved the Keyelekera project in the country’s northern region district of Karonga after months of resistance from environmentalists and human rights organisations. Paladin Resources of Australia will extract 10 000 tonnes of uranium from the site for the next 10 years.
Experts project that the Keyelekera plant will produce an estimated 200 tonnes of sulphuric acid a day for use in the leaching process which converts uranium ore to the required 10 000 tonnes of "yellow cake".
Environmental experts in Malawi have warned that there are risks of contamination of local rivers and watercourses, saying that possible leaks of ammonia and sulphur-dioxide gases from the plant could threaten communities in Kayelekera, home to more than 1 000 people.
For all its environmental shortcomings, the economic implications of uranium mining and non-seasonal reliability of nuclear energy have lured African governments into giving it a second thought.
The region’s traditional buffer to power shortages, coal-fired power, which has served as a supplementary source of energy for many countries, faces increasing challenges due to its destructive impact on the environment and the cumulatively high costs associated with coal-based energy production have made thermal energy unattractive.
Oil and coal were regional energy favourites due to their relatively low extraction costs and abundance, but they have begun to look sooty and unattractive in the face of the more lucrative and greenhouse gas free uranium, which is currently being lauded as a smarter and more efficient form of energy.
Research has shown that heavy pollution from coal-fired power generation consumes almost all the energy the power plants produce, and producing massive amounts of power simultaneously generates huge losses that include the high cost of fighting pollution and expenditure on public healthcare.
Coal-fired power plants are the biggest source of greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming and the very same climate change that is being blamed for causing energy shortages in southern Africa.
China, with the world’s fastest growing energy demand, is building a new coal-fired plant every week, while in the US, there are about 150 new coal plants planned or already being built.
Studies in China showed that losses caused by coal-fired power generation have cost the country nearly eight percent of its GDP per year since the late 1970s, a figure almost equal to the country’s GDP growth of 10 percent per annum, making coal more expensive than nuclear energy.
Faced with this challenge, African countries, themselves mass exporters of energy-rich uranium used in the 439 other nuclear reactors around the world, have started to consider nuclear energy as a lifeline for their own economies, currently facing an insurmountable increase in energy consumption.
According to the World Nuclear Association, 16 percent of the world’s electricity came from 440 nuclear reactors last year, according to the World Nuclear Association. Currently, there are 28 nuclear reactors under construction around the world and another 62 being planned, all of which will require significant amounts of uranium to start up and operate for their life spans ranging from 25 to 30 years each.
There are reports that Japan intends to add 11 more nuclear reactors by 2010, while China is expected to build another 30 by 2020. India will build an estimated 20 more reactors to feed its fast expanding economy, while Russia’s energy goals call for at least 42 new nuclear reactors, other estimates put the figure at 58.
In total, the global energy industry will see the entry of an additional 100 uranium hungry nuclear plants in the next 10 years, with 40 of them in Asia, and the projected demand for uranium from them is phenomenal, spelling positive economic prospects for uranium producing African countries.
Energy scientists estimate that by 2050, the world will need about 900 more nuclear power plants to keep up with growing energy requirements.
Economic considerations are probably weighing heavier than environmental apprehensions in the uranium debate. The quoted price of uranium recently went up by over 700 percent from $8 per pound to over $60. Experts have speculated that uranium prices could hit the $100 mark and keep going up until new uranium projects start production and improve availability.
Southern Africa’s energy demands are growing at a rate of three percent per annum, as the region’s population grows and metropolitan centres expand in response to steady economic growth, and this has outstripped the rate at which power generation in the region is growing.
African countries with confirmed energy rich uranium deposits are Namibia, Zimbabwe, Niger, South Africa, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Namibia has Africa’s second largest uranium deposits, after Niger, and a Russian company recently disclosed plans to set up a nuclear reactor to generate electricity.
It is widely perceived that a region-wide switch to nuclear energy without qualified human resources will result in an exponential increase in the proliferation of weapons grade uranium on the global nuclear parallel market and raise the risk of a major catastrophe with nuclear plants.
"First, why do we need nuclear energy? The answer is that there is a deficit in our energy needs at present and the picture gets gloomier when energy needs projections are made. But have we considered other forms of energy sources exhaustively?" argued Dr Nyambe.
He said there was need for the region to concentrate on conservation of the little energy available and develop cleaner forms of energy like solar power and wind-powered turbines before rushing to the uranium route, which involves a lot of environmental commitments that many African countries have so far failed to achieve.
On the political and economic impact of uranium mining in Africa, Stanton drew an allusion to the plight of the people of the Niger Delta, Nigeria, who continue to live in poverty despite the huge amounts of money generated by Western oil companies.
"Look at the horrid poverty that the people of that region live in, all under the watchful eyes of the US Military and Diplomatic machinery.
"Who has benefited from such wealth? US Special Forces are training the Nigerian military to kill-off the guerrillas operating in the Delta and there is a good chance that US Special Forces are operating there now if not in the very near future."
