One of the foremost domestic experts in nuclear physics has encouraged Namibia to waste no time in including nuclear energy in the country’s energy mix. 

Nuclear physicist Dr Nortin Titus said including nuclear in Namibia’s energy mix would ensure power reliability, sustainability and resilience to external price shocks. 

Responding exclusively to New Era on Namibia’s nuclear potential, Titus, in his personal capacity and as a homegrown scientist, noted it is only natural for every country to exploit its domestic energy resources first. 

Nuclear power production, he pointed out, has been around for 75 years, and is a mature method of electricity production. 

In this regard, he argued for Namibia to conclude and implement the required legislation, regulations and institutions to regulate a nuclear industry to operate safely and responsibly. 

“Decision-makers and legislators in Parliament, through discussion and passing laws and regulations, should enable all sectors beneficial to Namibia to be unlocked. Joining and adhering to international nuclear treaties and conventions is crucial if nuclear power production is enabled in Namibia, and as such, our uranium is put to work in benefitting the country’s energy needs,” he stated. 

“Namibia unfortunately does not have abundant coal deposits, but does have abundant uranium deposits. It just recently made new oil and gas discoveries, and there is a national outcry for the government to make use of more solar power because of the ‘abundance of sun’. For a desert country, our only baseload power plant is a hydro-power plant, which is also at the mercy of seasonal rainfall,” Titus commented. 

“A productive way is to think of building a reliable, robust and resilient power system to support a growing society and economy. This is done best with a diversified mix of energy sources. A diversified energy mix is resilient towards price shocks, geopolitical dynamics, fuel supplies and suppliers, and the availability of diverse technologies and parts. The same principle for a strong economy is a diversified economy and an antidote to the Dutch disease,” Titus added. 

He observed that the argument of using uranium for nuclear power simply because Namibia is a top producer is a questionable way of strategic thinking around uranium value-addition. However, to view uranium as an additional domestically-available fuel source in an energy mix is to spread demand and supply risk across multiple power-generation technologies, shielding customers from external volatilities. 

He said going nuclear is a long-term strategic decision, and compared it to other mooted priorities. “In the nuclear case, nuclear fuel is produced through the nuclear fuel cycle (uranium mining, conversion, enrichment and fuel fabrication), and in this instance, uranium mining earns the most revenue (48-50%) of the fuel cycle. Uranium conversion, enrichment and fuel fabrication earn less revenue, but at the moment, there is more than enough global capacity to meet demand for conversion, enrichment and fabrication. Once fuel is produced, it goes into a nuclear power plant which produces electricity, and the sale of electricity is the real money-maker, hence the uneconomic nature of fuel fabrication. Additionally, fuel fabrication is done by a handful of companies in the world that dominate the market. They themselves hire the necessary skills, and therefore, it is in a way correct to say the technology and skills (for nuclear fuel manufacturing) are not necessary. However, if you operate aircraft, it is just natural that you will train aircraft mechanics, although you can book in your aircraft at Boeing and Airbus for its scheduled service. The same principles apply,” Titus emphasised. 

In light of a recent call by the ruling party Swapo for the inclusion of nuclear power into Namibia’s energy considerations, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) touched in its fourth Quarterly Economic Review for 2024 on Namibia’s nuclear ambitions. As part of its conclusion, the IPPR stated it is unlikely that Namibia can devote the resources required to move into a nuclear industry, noting high barriers to entering the nuclear power industry, and argued that having uranium plays almost no role in developing the technology and skills necessary to produce nuclear fuel. 

Responding to the IPPR’s conclusions, Titus disagreed that the high barriers to nuclear power in Namibia are unassailable, and argued that with a well-informed and disciplined approach, careful planning and guidance by best-practice, the country can leverage its world-class expertise in the safe mining of uranium and radiation management to navigate its path to successfully introduce nuclear power-generation in the future. 

“It’s important to start now, as expertise does not come overnight, and the time it takes to build a nuclear power plant could be sufficient to train highly-qualified operators,” Titus continued. 

-ebrandt@nepc.com.na