Link to source: http://www.nuclearafrica.co.za/history.htm
Nuclear Power Potential Nuclear Technology is now about a century old. It was at the dawn of the 20th century when famous scientific names such as Albert Einstein, Ernest Rutherford and Enrico Fermi made theoretical and experimental advances which paved the way for the introduction of nuclear power. At the time a number of these famous names did not believe that real nuclear power would result from the amazing calculations and early experiments which indicated the incredible power contained in the atom. In a few decades the true potential of nuclear became very visible to the world. The huge potential of nuclear power to charge the face of all mankind is still lying largely untapped. The true wealth of nuclear power still lies before us. The illustration [see illustration at link above] shows the true size of Africa, which is often not fully realised with conventional map projections. Africa is larger than China, India, Europe and the United States combined. This is a huge area which needs to be electrified to a much greater degree than it is now. African countries need reliable accessible electricity supplies which are affordable. Such supplies will drive economies forward at an accelerating rate, to the social and economic benefit of all their citizens. Can nuclear power achieve this? Is nuclear power not too large, too expensive and too complex for most African countries? The answer is that Africa is ready to embark on a nuclear power path. Current mindsets imagine large nuclear plants which have to be situated on large bodies of water, such as the ocean, for cooling purposes. But as technological advance races forward, new generations of nuclear reactors are on the drawing boards and in technical development phases. These are reactors of the order of only 100MW in size which do not need to be near large bodies of water. They can be placed virtually anywhere. They can be taken to where the power is needed, rather than generating power at a defined site such as is required with hydro-power, and then having to transmit the power over the huge distances of Africa to where the industrial development needs it.