Tanzania is urging its East African neighbors to begin developing nuclear power to aid in the region’s electricity generation.
Tanzania has already started with local company Mantra Tanzania Ltd. to start mining uranium by 2012 at Namtumbo in the southern part of the country. Tanzania Atomic Energy Commission Director General Iddi Mkilaha said that balancing energy needs and supply would not be met by conventional and renewable power such as wind and solar. “Coal and natural gas are sustainable in a limited time span but long term solution to energy deficit can only be met by nuclear energy,” he told an East African Power Industry Convention in Nairobi.
In 2009, it was reported that about 36 million pounds of uranium deposits had been discovered at Mkuju river valley in Namtumbo District, Ruvuma Region with officials of Mantra, an Australian minerals exploration firm, quoted as saying the area’s deposits were enough to make the country one of the leaders in uranium production in Africa. He also noted that African countries had large amounts of land that was unused, but this land could be used to build underground nuclear reactors.
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