Abstract
More than 770million people in the world have no access to electricity and Africa alone has about 580 million people out of these numbers. Although half of the world’s energy resources is found in the African continent, there is still a prevailing crisis in terms of access to electricity and unstable power supply mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This is a serious setback to the 7th sustainable development goal of universal access by 2030.The major need of the continent is an immediate huge consistent source of energy which can be easily achieved with nuclear technology. Nuclear energy does not only provide excessive amount of energy, but it also provides affordable and clean energy which is in line with the 13th sustainable development goal of “taking action to combat climate change”. Nuclear technology also provides other enormous benefits in areas like agriculture, water desalination, medicine, and archaeology. The aim of this research is to investigate the factors causing epileptic power supply in Sub-Saharan Africa focussing on how nuclear technology can be a potential solution. This investigation is carried out based on data from Africa’s most populous nation Nigeria. Qualitative and quantitative data were obtained from the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC), the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA), the International Energy Agency (IEA), and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The data obtained were used to make the energy profile using energy modelling tools. In this research the electricity demand and supply in Nigeria was investigated and factors causing the lack of electricity outlined. The possibilities of nuclear energy being employed and factors that affect the use of nuclear energy in Sub-Saharan Africa were considered. Furthermore, the question of how nuclear energy can be a way out of darkness for Sub-Saharan Africa was discussed. Factors to be put into consideration in harnessing nuclear energy were considered. The factors outlined include more effort to be geared towards public acceptance and education, collaborations of various institution to achieve the required human resource development, compliance with global best practises, upgrade of which include the grid and a strong government commitment in including nuclear energy into the energy mix. The challenges involved in harnessing nuclear energy were also considered and suggestions proffered. Some of the challenges that were outlined are: how the existing grid size could accommodate the Nuclear Power Plants (NPP), suggestions of possibilities of considering smaller infrastructure capacity NPPs like Small Modular Reactors (SMR) were proffered. The stance of most African nation of having great untapped renewable energy resource as a reason for not employing nuclear energy was addressed. Compared to renewable energy sources, nuclear energy provides cheaper and stable electricity for baseload which is a driver for industrialisation unlike renewables that provides intermittent electricity which is dependent on different non constant factors. It was concluded that Sub-Saharan Africa can have an uninterrupted electricity if the potentials in nuclear energy is harnessed and included into her energy mix.