Nuclear agency scouts eight sites in Siaya for power plant

The Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA) has identified eight potential sites along Lake Victoria that can host Kenya’s first nuclear power plant, board chairman Prof. Larry Gumbe has said.

Speaking in Siaya County following a meeting with county assembly speaker George Okode, Prof. Gumbe said the sites, between Ugambe and Dagamoyo are situated in Bondo and Rarieda sub counties.

He said the agency was committed to ensuring the success of the project within the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and standards.

He assured the public that nuclear energy plants were among the safest power production sites, with minimal deaths adding “number of deaths from the energy producing plants is measured in numbers per terawatt hours”.

Gumbe said the number of deaths from gas plants stand at 26 per terawatt hours while geothermal stands at 1.3 per terawatt hour.

“Hydroelectricity is even higher while nuclear, solar and wind power stands at 0.03 per terawatt hour,” said Prof. Gumbe.

The NuPEA chairman said that the agency will engage in a rigorous stakeholder participation with among others the international, regional and local stakeholders.

The speaker of the Siaya county assembly, George Okode called on NuPEA to ensure adequate stakeholder participation before construction of the plant.