Connecting nuclear reactors across Africa

Dr Kelvin Kemm

During the first two decades of the 21st Century many countries of the world adopted policies of introducing large numbers of solar and wind electricity generating systems. These moves were largely politically induced, as a result of pressure from green activists. These activists believe in a looming world catastrophe induced by a rising level of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO₂). The same activists were also anti-nuclear, one has to ask why?

In contrast, the green extremists promote an image of a highly-distributed electricity generating policy in which individual households and municipal districts would generate their own electricity. This philosophy was linked to romantic ideas about not having to rely on large central points of generation, but rather that small groupings of people would just supply their own immediate needs.  This philosophy explained their anti-nuclear sentiment, even though nuclear power emits no CO₂ whatsoever.  Such an approach has not turned out to be at all successful, in comparison to their exaggerated claims about what could be achieved.  The performance of wind and solar has not lived up to the romantic claims of the extreme greens.

As the reality of the inadequacy of solar and wind started to dawn on many world leaders, they have realised that to provide electricity reliability and baseload power there is no option but to seriously integrate nuclear power into their national systems.

Big and Small

However, for nuclear power to become available to many countries, a range of different nuclear options had to come into existence.

These include large traditional PWRs of 1000 MW to 1600 MW electrical output, but must also include small nuclear reactors of up to 300 MW output, and even smaller reactors of the microreactor class, of under 10 MW.

Small reactors can be deployed over a variety of geographic locations, and can be very versatile in a wide range of applications. Certainly, the worldwide prospects for small reactors are extremely attractive and exciting.  Large and small reactors are not in competition with each other, they are complementary. If you own an earth-moving company, you would own both a 5-ton truck and a half-ton truck. You don’t send the 5-tonner to collect a dozen bags of cement. However, your half-tonner can travel along narrow roads and into tight spaces where the 5-tonner can’t go. Each to his own. It is the same with nuclear reactors.

The Kudu Design of the HTMR-100 Small Modular Reactor designed for African savanna conditions. (Architects JKDA Architects of Pretoria)

Africa calling

But now let us look at African countries. You can’t just replicate a European electricity system into an African country and expect it to work in the same way. Most African countries do not have large supplies of natural primary energy, such as coal, oil, or gas. Even a primary energy source such as hydro is rare, and even when one finds a potential hydro source, for example a large lake, it can be very unsuitable because the water levels in Africa can vary from 100% full to less than 20% full over a year or two, due to the highly variable rainfall cycles experienced in Africa

African countries have to look after their own GDP growth, and the consequent health and welfare of their own people. But what we have seen, far too often, is Western countries coming to Africa and persuading governments to install solar and wind on a large scale, usually with much arm-twisting, telling them how they will be helping to ‘save the planet.’ Considerations of African children dying because of a lack of electricity to essential services are generally not considered as factors worth caring about. Satisfying the European political agenda is seen as far more important.

Then the Western country offers a large loan, (which has to be repaid) on condition that the African country obeys ‘donor’ instructions and purchases equipment from the ‘donating’ country.

Such actions are clear examples of ‘economic colonialism’ in which African countries are forced into financial subjugation.

Reality

The result for an African country is that not only are wind and solar systems highly intermittent, but they are frequently sited very far away from consumers, because of the vast distances inherent in Africa. This scenario then calls for the construction of very long power lines, which frequently were not costed into the ‘attractive’ renewables cost projections originally presented by the Western country. As an illustration, South Africa has a major arterial power line of over 1500 km long. which is unheard of in Europe.  That is approximately the distance from Rome to London. Another illustration is that the distance from the bottom of Botswana to the top of the country is the same as Paris to Copenhagen.

Powerlines of over 1500 km carrying 765kV running across South Africa

It is therefore rather irresponsible of certain European countries to persuade African governments to adopt totally unsuitable power systems. What is particularly painful is when this is done to satisfy European political objectives back in the EU.  

When all of this is said and done, it indicates clearly to African governments that they must look after themselves for the longer term, because nobody else will. Pursuing simple logic indicates, very clearly, that an undoubted answer for African countries is to follow a pathway of introducing Small Modular Reactors on a large scale. By doing this, they also maintain energy security and can completely control when and where SMR units are placed.

South African development

In South Africa, the HTMR-100 SMR was intentionally developed to be gas-cooled, without the need for a large body of water for system cooling.

So any potential nuclear host country does not need an ocean coastline, or reliable large lake. An HTMR-100 can be sited in the middle of a desert, or on the side of a mountain.

The Oryx Design of the HTMR-100 Small Modular Reactor designed for the Namibian desert. (Architects JKDA Architects of Pretoria)

As African countries contemplate an SMR future we find the usual sad litany of anti-nuclear sentiment directed at them. Not only do we find the extreme green venom unleashed, like; ‘A nuclear reactor can kill millions of people’ or, ‘Your children will have genetic defects,’ but we also find large Western companies and governments pushing not-so-subtle anti-nuclear messages like, ‘You are not ready for nuclear,’ ‘Nuclear is too sophisticated for you, ‘ ‘How will you handle highly-radioactive waste material.’ and so on.

Usually the messages are also linked to, ‘Why don’t you just do a simple quick thing, which is more suitable for Africa, like solar… which we will provide…with a large repayable loan.’

The IAEA reports that over 20 African countries have indicated that they intend to follow a nuclear future. A number of them are now moving, with purpose, towards a nuclear goal. Good for them.

Macro thinking

But now African countries have an opportunity to think in a macro manner. One can look at a large number of countries collectively.

So what comes out of such thinking? Well, many reactors can be connected together, via the internet, known by the silly name of the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT).

This means, for example, that there can be Monitoring Stations set up at strategic places at which operators can watch critical reactor parameters like; gas flow rates, reactor temperatures, gas pressures, and a host of other parameters. Any parameter which starts to move out of normal range could immediately be detected and reported to various authorities. Such stations would monitor reactors across a number of countries.

A view of part of the South African National Network Operations Centre (NNOC) for telecommunications.

Participating countries would belong to a mutually beneficial nuclear operators network linked, in turn, to a responsible body like the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO). Should any assistance be required at any reactor it could be timeously arranged via the network, long before the event became extreme.

Such a system could also be used for standard reporting to nuclear regulators. Additionally, with such a system in place, individual reactors would not need to each keep a comprehensive inventory of spare parts.  An exchange system could be developed, in which the network members could supply each other with parts, or with trained specialists for specific tasks. Such an approach would eliminate the need for each new nuclear country to develop a world-class regulator plus a complete complement of trained technicians, before installing its first SMR. This type of system is currently in place for telecommunications, motor cars, mining equipment, and more, so also doing it for nuclear power would be a logical move.

Of course, with nuclear power, any African country can also rest easy in the knowledge that a reliable fuel supply is no problem. With an SMR the host country can elect to maintain, say, a six-month fuel supply on site.  Such a decision would be political and economic in nature, and not limited by a technical limitation like a coal conveyor belt, or oil pipeline. So, no need to worry about the spectre of a major African storm disrupting a constant supply of fuel to the Power Station, by washing away a road, railway line, conveyor belt, or gas pipeline. That really is a major plus!

So African countries should now clearly adopt nuclear power as their future.   They owe it to their citizens to provide a clear vision of a stable, reliable, and inexpensive electricity supply as a foundation for national growth. Without such a supply, the future GDP road will be very rocky, with many sharp turns and unexpected twists.

Africa must take the wisdom of its accumulated ages and combine it with a new vision of the future, looking towards nuclear power.

Dr Kelvin Kemm is a nuclear physicist and is Past Chairman of the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa). He is currently Chairman of Stratek Global, a nuclear project management company based in Pretoria, South Africa. The company carries out strategy development and project planning in a wide variety of fields for diverse clients. They are working towards building an HTMR-100 in Pretoria.   Kelvin.kemm@stratekglobal.com.

www.stratekglobal.com