To lessen its reliance on fossil fuels, the Rwandan government on Tuesday inked a contract with a German-Canadian start-up to construct a “experimental” civil nuclear reactor.
According to Dual Fluid Energy, the start-up that will construct the reactor, it will be ready for testing in 2026.
Dual Fluid Energy CEO Gotz Ruprecht stated at a conference that these “reactors may be utilised to create electricity, hydrogen, and synthetic fuels at lower prices than fossil fuels.”
The use of nuclear power will provide “a stable and reliable source of electricity, reducing dependence on hydrocarbons and helping to meet the growing demand for energy”, said Infrastructure Minister Ernest Nsabimama.
Rwanda signed a deal in 2019 to build nuclear power plants in collaboration with Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency Rosatom, sparking strong opposition due to concerns over security.
The leader of the main opposition party, the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, Frank Habineza, deemed the agreement with Dual Fluid Energy “dangerous”. There is “no big difference between what Dual Fluid Energy wants to do and what Russia and the Rwandan government wanted to do in 2019,” he told AFP.
“No study can convince me that there is a place in this country where a reactor or a nuclear power plant can be built without endangering the population,” he said.
“Our test reactor is a small device with low combustion and therefore contains little nuclear material. For this reason, it poses no threat to the environment,” assured the Rwanda Atomic Energy Office and Dual Fluid Energy in a joint press release.
South Africa is the only country on the continent to have a civil nuclear program, with two reactors in service for more than 30 years.
