Uganda said on 11 May that it had acquired land for the construction of East Africa’s first NPP. Minister of State for Energy Okasai Sidronius Opolot made the announcement in a statement without identifying the site, Bloomberg reported. In 2017 Uganda said it planned to build a 2,000MWe NPP by 2032. Uganda, which depends mainly on hydro-electric power, plans to boost electricity generation capacity by almost 12-fold to 17,000MWe in the medium term, according to the Electricity Regulatory Authority.

A statement from the government of Uganda said Aline des Cloizeaux, the IAEA’s director for Africa, had told Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni on 10 May that Uganda is ready for the plant. An International IAEA team of experts conducted an eight-day mission to Uganda to review its infrastructure development for a nuclear programme in December.

Opolot said the government had adopted the IAEA’s three-step Milestones Approach for embarking on a nuclear power programme. This comprises a learning stage, followed by the formation of an institutional base and, finally, initiating construction projects.

Uganda has so far trained 22 nuclear engineers to the master’s degree level. A school will be set up to train more, according to the minister.