The World makes a pivot to Nuclear energy

Two years have passed since Ghana’s Parliament has ratified the Paris Agreement on Climate Change to keep global emissions well below 2°C to save the planet. Ghana’s strategy to achieve this goal and stick to low- and zero emission energy fully strives to minimize the risks associated with global warming factors and corresponds the responsive mechanics.

The greatest world challenge in the 21st century is deep decarbonization. It becomes even more challenging as it must go hand in hand with expanding energy access for billions of people in Africa that ensures further economic growth, especially in rapidly developing countries like Ghana. According to the World Bank, Ghana is likely to have one of the world’s fastest-growing economies this year. Its growth in 2018 is expected to make up 8.3-8.9 percent, and there is a chance for Ghana to outpace even India with its booming tech sector as well as Ethiopia that has been one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies over the last decade thanks to expanding agricultural production and coffee exports .

To ensure sustainable economic development Ghana has to rely on the clean, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, as well as nuclear. The recent study of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) titled “Future of Nuclear Energy in a Carbon-Constrained World” shows that without potential contribution of nuclear, the cost of achieving deep decarbonization targets increases significantly. The significant share of nuclear in the national energy mix also helps to provide smaller energy tariffs and make energy available for all the people. MIT Study shows that by 2060, energy costs will be twice lower in the countries where share of nuclear in the energy mix achieve 50-60%, than in the countries with smaller nuclear share.

Nuclear reactors supply steady, low-carbon energy—a valuable commodity in the world confronting climate change. Yet for two decades the role of nuclear power has been diminishing. Jacopo Buongiorno, TEPCO Professor and associate department head of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT, and co-author of the “Future of Nuclear Energy in a Cargon-Constrained World” study says: “Incorporating new policy and business models, as well as innovations in construction that may make deployment of cost-effective nuclear power plants more affordable, could enable nuclear energy to help meet the growing global demand for energy generation while decreasing emissions to address climate change” .
No wonder that more and more countries opt for nuclear: 30 countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, are considering, planning or starting nuclear power programmes, and a further 20 or so countries have at some point expressed their interest. Not only newcomers go to nuclear but also those countries which used to have nuclear facilities and then adopted antinuclear policy, make a pivot to nuclear.

For instance, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently said that he’s open to the idea of nuclear power, although it has been banned in Australia since 1998. Still Mr. Morrison says he would consider lifting the ban if research proved it could be done on a commercial basis and bring power prices down.

Taiwan which has four operable nuclear power reactors accounting for around 15% of the island’s electricity generation, is preparing to hold in November a pro-nuclear referendum on the Taiwanese government’s policy to phase out the use of nuclear energy by 205 . “We are overjoyed,” said Taiwanese pro-nuclear leader, Shih-hsiu Huang. “If we win, we will immediately ask the government to finish construction of Lungmen NPP, and allow the other three plants to resume normal operations.”
A victory in Taiwan to restart closed nuclear reactors would boost similar efforts in Japan, which is struggling to reopen nuclear plants in the face of continuing post-Fukushima fears, and in South Korea, whose anti-nuclear president has sought to reduce the nation’s use of the technology.

Even in Europe, where European Union’s renewable energy directive actively discriminates against nuclear in favor of solar and wind, pro-nuclear voices are raising up. Thus, in Germany TenneT TSO, a transmission network operator, reported 40% rise in costs related to renewable energy issues in 2017. These costs came from having to make emergency interventions to stabilise the German national electricity grid whenever wind and solar installations demonstrated some of their trademark intermittency. Interventions like these involved calling on coal, gas and nuclear plants to begin generating power when renewables failed to meet demand . No wonder that pro-nuclear Europeans are proposing a petition drive to change the discriminatory directive, and the first Nuclear Pride Fest took place in Munich last October. Some officials join the community spirit. For example, French president Emmanuel Macron, spoke out favorably for nuclear last February saying he would not rule out France building new nuclear reactors .
Pursuing its nuclear ambitions, Ghana joins the global trend for clean and reliable energy at affordable tariffs and adheres to the world experience in preventing everything that can cause minor changes in the climate.