enyands wrote:
Chemirocha with all due respect I clearly understand where you are coming from but I have 4 questions for you :
1 If there happens a leakage like the one that happened in pollman Washington state how would kenya government handle it mr.chemirocha? With all these boreholes people are digging left right and centre???
2 Countries that are managing well the nuclear powers are first world? Kenya do we have technology ? Do we even have courses in colleges about nuclear ?
3 do we have disaster management should there be a crisis of nuclear like japan ?do we?. An unfortunate accident happened in Thika road sometime .a woman had a leg that was cut and she was bleeding . People rushed to see and the went away screaming "huyo amekufa hayuko?" And she was still alive , guess what because of lack of ambulances and mere FIRST AID TRAINING she passed on.Now back to my point ,with this kind of mentality do we have disaster management structures
4 have we exhausted all the available green energies ???
5 kwani usa na Russia ni wajinga when they try to discourage people from doing nuclear?why are they even moving away from nuclear and going green ?
As you advised I have put my emotional feelings aside.answer categorically all these 5 questions with facts and I'll respect your contribution.meanwhile answer them one by one as I have stated ....I'm waiting
Very reasonable questions, I will try my best to answer you.
1. The facility at Pullman Washington State University is a research institution and not explicitly the field of power generation. The way I understand it, the incident involved a leak in the university sewer system and was picked before any damage to human life or the environment. A high standard of safety should be a must if we are to even consider the nuclear route.
2. Developing countries such as South Africa, Pakistan, India, Egypt and former Soviet Union/ Warsaw Pact states such as Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia have run nuclear power plants.
Since 2012, Kenya has been partnering with the International Atomic Energy Agency to train engineers and build capacity. Locally UoN does offer courses in nuclear science at the Masters level. The expertise is definitely there.
3. The biggest disaster from a power generation project was a dam failure in China. Over 100,000 perished and 11 million were displaced. At present there are also fears over the Kariba Dam in Zambia/ Zimbabwe and Mosul Dam in Iraq.
Secondly geothermal power projects have resulted in earthquakes in Switzerland and the United States.
Seven Forks and Olkaria have been running for many years without the fear of catastrophic failure. The point is Kenya has a reasonable level of competency when it comes to managing such complex and high risk projects. Nuclear should not be treated any different.
4. Kenya is presently at its peak capacity with hydroelectric power generation and geothermal capacity is not as promising as the state's ambition of achieving 5000 MW production.
Wind and solar may sound good but they are both expensive and impractical. Remember solar power is unavailable at peak consumer demand which is in the evening and night time.
Another example, the planned Kajiado wind farm is expected to bring a peak 100 MW from a construction cost of 22 billion shillings. Compare with Olkaria III which is expected to produce 110 MW from a construction cost of 3 billion. You be the judge on which is more cost effective.
5. Admittedly the European Union and Japan and strongly against nuclear power generation. The big powers Germany, UK and France intend to completely phase out nuclear power out of safety concerns.
On the other hand, the United States has commissioned nine new nuclear plants in the last ten years alone. Russia and China are also investing billions of dollars to build new nuclear power plants and upgrade existing facilities.