Museveni gives Russia, South Korea second chance to build nuclear power stations

Museveni said one unit will generate 7,000MW while another would produce 8,400MW, but the timeline and the funding of the projects aren’t yet known.

“We have agreed with Russia and South Korea to build two uranium power stations for electricity,” President Museveni said at a coffee summit on Tuesday.

This is not the first time government officials have talked about the construction of a nuclear station in Uganda.

In 2016, Russian-owned Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation officials visited Uganda. They signed a deal with state authorities on the development of the nuclear station, but the project didn’t take off.

Currently, the country is struggling with funds for the development of hydro dams that are cheaper than the nuclear power station. The current domestic power generation capacity is 1402MW and only has power for only 800MW leaving the rest not consumed. The government plans to export power abroad.

President Museveni said Uganda has uranium deposits, a mineral used for the production of nuclear power, and several investors have approached him to mine them for export which he rejected.

“A western company proposed to mine uranium. I asked them, ‘Mine it and take it where?’ They said to export it. I asked to export it for what purpose? They told me, ‘We want to take uranium’,” President Museveni said.

He said he refused because Uganda still has power challenges and that if they wanted uranium, they should start by processing it here for power generation.

He also said he banned the export of raw materials because the country would lose money and jobs if the raw materials were processed abroad.

Recently, the president also banned the export of timbers on the same principles.

He said only wooden furniture made in Uganda would be exported.

He also directed government agencies not to buy imported furniture when there are local manufacturers who make the same products.