Nuclear energy, once hailed for its promise and feared for its risks, is drawing renewed interest across Africa. While proponents highlight its low-carbon credentials, concern over safety, financing, institutional capacity and long-term waste disposal complicate efforts to expand nuclear power on the continent.
Today Africa has just one commercial nuclear power station in operation: Koeberg, near Cape Town, South Africa. Nevertheless, governments and suppliers from countries such as South Korea, China and Russia are pursuing new projects, seeing the continent as a potential market for reactors and technology.
A 2025 assessment by South African journalist Tristen Taylor, published via the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s Cape Town office, painted a mixed picture. Vendors, Taylor told DW, view Africa as a market with upside, but actual progress depends on transparent procurement, robust contracts and credible financing. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) offers technical help to nations preparing nuclear programmes, but institutional readiness remains a key variable.
Of the projects under way, Egypt’s el-Dabaa plant appears most advanced: Russia’s Rosatom began construction on the country’s northern coast in 2022. By contrast, agreements signed between Rosatom and several Sahel states, including Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, often appear more symbolic than practical, Taylor argued — sometimes driven by political signalling rather than well-developed plans to build and operate reactors.
South Africa’s Koeberg, built with French assistance and brought online in the mid-1980s, has two reactors with a combined output of roughly 2,000 MW, supplying about 4% of national electricity. In 2025 the plant’s operating licence was renewed for another 20 years despite objections from environmental groups. Critics, including Francesca de Gasparis of the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI), have questioned whether state utility Eskom has consistently met evolving best-practice standards for maintenance, testing and upgrades. Observers say some safety assessments rely on outdated data and that overall transparency has been lacking; Eskom has indicated it will address safety concerns but did not publish a comprehensive response at the time of reporting.
Eskom is also advancing plans for a much larger installation at Duynefontein, near Cape Town — a proposed 4,000-MW facility that has drawn scrutiny over planning transparency and safety assurances.
Ghana is exploring both a conventional large reactor and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), engaging potential suppliers from France, China, South Korea, Russia and the United States. Proposals have suggested construction could begin as early as 2027, though formal contract details have not been released. Globally, large reactors have generally been bespoke projects with distinct technical and safety challenges and often higher levelised costs than mature renewables such as wind, solar and hydro. SMR advocates argue that standardisation and factory production could lower costs over time, but so far SMRs remain largely at the prototype stage.
Kenya has set an ambitious timetable: President William Ruto announced plans for a 2,000-MW reactor at Siaya on the shore of Lake Victoria, targeting generation by 2034. Nuclear programmes frequently face delays and budget overruns, and Kenya also confronts institutional obstacles. In early 2025 the cabinet moved to dissolve the National Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA) as part of austerity measures, though Parliament had not ratified that change when the report was published. Local environmental advocates, including Right Livelihood Award laureate Phyllis Omido, warn about social and ecological impacts on fishing communities around Lake Victoria and the risks associated with transporting nuclear fuel across the country. Omido and other groups have long opposed a previously proposed plant near Kilifi on the Indian Ocean coast.
A particularly thorny issue is radioactive waste. High-level spent fuel remains hazardous for millennia, and many communities demand concrete, long-term disposal solutions rather than assurances of temporary storage. In South Africa, low- and intermediate-level waste is kept at Vaalputs in the sparsely populated Northern Cape, while high-level spent fuel from Koeberg remains stored on-site. The government has set a goal of opening a final repository by 2065, a schedule met with scepticism from activists and experts who note that finding socially and technically acceptable solutions for permanent disposal is difficult.
In sum, African countries display differing levels of commitment and readiness for nuclear power. Egypt’s el-Dabaa is the most advanced new-build project; South Africa maintains its only commercial plant while planning greater capacity; and Ghana and Kenya are weighing a mix of large reactors and SMRs. Yet financing, governance, public acceptance, rigorous safety oversight and the unresolved challenge of long-term waste management all pose significant obstacles to a rapid expansion of nuclear energy across the continent.
This piece was translated and adapted from an original German publication.