A continental spark: floating nuclear power in Africa

The technology is of interest to African nations. Guinea, a country of 14 million in West Africa, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia's state-owned nuclear energy firm Rosatom to deploy the technology. Rosatom is also understood to have shown its technology to Egypt, South Africa, and Ghana.

The flexibility of maritime nuclear power is part of the attraction, as is its reduced cost. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says floating nuclear power plants (FNPPs) can be built in a factory, assembled in a shipyard and transported to a site around the world "to speed up construction and keep costs down". 

Sea power

Floating nuclear reactors mounted on seaborne platforms can be stationed near coastlines, on islands, or in remote regions not connected to national power grids. Floating nuclear power unit (FPU) technology is now in use, but not yet widespread.

Russia's operational nuclear generator at sea is the Akademik Lomonosov, based in the country's remote north-east. The transportable FPU looks like a large ship, measuring 140 metres in length, and has a lifespan of up to 40 years.

Commissioned in May 2020, it is owned by Rosatom and incorporates technology used in Russian nuclear icebreakers. It has a small modular reactor and produces around 70 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Land-based nuclear power plants produce anything from 300MW to 1,600MW.

Costs and benefits

FPUs have some advantages over land-based nuclear power stations. For instance, there is no need to feasibility studies related to local terrain. The cost of the onshore infrastructure is lower down, and at the end of their lifespan, marine reactors can be dismantled.

Russia is not the only country developing marine-based small reactors, with Canada, China, Denmark, South Korea, and the United States also progressing with reactor designs, but the Akademik Lomonosov is currently the world's only operational FPU.

Read more: A new scramble for Africa is underway and Russia is vying for influence

Africa is keen to match its resources with its ambitions, and to move away from fossil fuels. Although nuclear power is not classed as renewable energy, its generation does not cause greenhouse gases.

but deployment of the new FPU technology is limited, in part because of fears over US sanctions against countries using nuclear generation. There are other concerns, too.

Water fights

The IAEA said: "It is the very mobility of these FNPPs that raises new questions, particularly when they move across international borders or operate in international—rather than territorial—waters. For example, how does the licensing and regulation process work when a FNPP is built and fuelled in one country's jurisdiction, and then transported to another jurisdiction?"

Water is an important resource in Africa and disputes over rivers that flow across borders are not uncommon. Despite UN efforts to establish legal frameworks governing international rivers, many countries do not abide by them, or interpret water rights differently. A particular source of tension and instability is disputes over the Nile, which has left Egypt and Ethiopia facing off.

Read more: Ethiopia pushes Egypt into tight corner after Nile dam talks collapse

Salah Halima, a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, told Al Majalla that upstream and downstream countries fought over "the distribution of international river waters", adding: "These conflicts intensify when the waters are used for hydropower generation, threatening the water security of downstream nations."

Africa's big international rivers, such as the Nile, Congo, and Niger, often stoke disputes over sovereign rights. This is a growing problem, with major dam construction projects underway across the continent.

These include the $2.9bn Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station across the Rufiji River in eastern Tanzania. Built by two Egyptian firms, the state-owned dam is the fourth largest in Africa, the ninth largest in the world, and the largest power station in East Africa, with a capacity of 2,115MW.

Halima said the African Union and the UN were trying to mediate water disputes "but political challenges, especially those tied to colonial legacies, hinder lasting solutions".

Ahmed Sultan, an expert in oil and energy affairs, said African countries can suffer from "interconnected and overlapping crises, especially food and water insecurity, which place immense pressure on natural resources and intertwine with the energy crisis, creating a vicious cycle".

Challenges and solutions

With a rapidly growing population, Sultan acknowledged the dilemma of achieving energy security in a continent with the world's highest electricity access deficit, but said there were "questions about why the continent hasn't fully capitalised on its vast energy resources".

Many African nations are trying to take advantage of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, but Sultan said "such transitions require significant investment in infrastructure and technology, which is a major challenge".

Competition for Africa's oil and gas (especially given the recent discoveries in West and East Africa) may fuel a struggle for influence on the continent between China, Europe, Russia, and the US. Indeed, Russia's interest in Africa is not limited to nuclear power. Moscow also provides military and security support to some countries, while Russian firms invest in sectors like mining.

FPUs "currently represent a promising solution to electricity challenges in Africa," said Sultan. "It could serve as an ideal alternative to traditional nuclear energy, which faces serious issues, most notably radioactive waste management and decommissioning costs… Russia is one of the most prominent countries pioneering FPU technology."

Only time will tell whether floating nuclear technology is right for Africa. The IAEA notes the "considerable legal and regulatory challenges" facing floating nuclear power, but as a way of providing clean electricity and heat to remote regions of Africa, it is certainly an interesting prospect.