Professor Mpande says this is because the country has relevant skilled manpower, minerals and chemicals used in processing nuclear energy in Africa.
He says Zambia has the second highest reserves of Uranium used in Nuclear production after Niger.
Professor Mphande says Uranium is present in Luwamana, Kansanshi , along the Zambezi valley, Eastern province and Northern province respectively.
In an interview with ZNBC News, Professor Mpande said the use of Nuclear energy is a worthwhile investment adding that it is cheaper than other sources of energy.
He has called on government to ensure that its industrialisation agenda is realised by ensuring that all Uranium being mined is processed and sold at metal stage as opposed to selling it in its raw form.
If capacity and capability is there to create nuclear energy. Why then wait to start doing that. Take the lead into that Prof.
Yes just install fuuucking electrical cables. Do it!!
“Zambia has the capacity to investment in nuclear energy.” Yaba!
“Professor Mpande says this is because the country has relevant skilled manpower” On such projects you always employ foreign skilled man power. Who you trying to f00l Prof?
Building nuclear plants requires trained and experienced engineers and technicians. The world does not have enough of these people to allow more than a handful of plants to built at a time. Educating and training a large number of new workers would take many years. Zambia does not even have skilled manpower to fix an X-ray machine at UTh.
The Proof may be right that Zambia has uranium, but what he forgets is that Russia supplies its own processed uranium to run its reactors…Russia also has huge deposits of uranium and they can process it, why would they use Zambian uranium? South Africa also has huge uranium deposits but it will not be their uranium used in their proposed Russian-built power stations. That is how the Russians operate I am afraid to say. The biggest question…after ‘how does Zambia pay the billions of Dollars required?”…is what does Zambia do with the used nuclear fuel…it is highly toxic and very dangerous to transport..even the Japanese send their spent fuel to the UK for reprocessing (and the cost is huge). This is all a pipe dream..Zambia has hug potential for clean energy…hydro, wind, solar…
Hydro , wind and Solar highly depend on weather hence not 100% reliable to some extent. Therefore we need to start looking at opportunities like nuclear now.
He has personalized this matter. Just because he knows about Uranium does not make the country safe. How many rivers have been polluted on the C/B by miners who are expected to know better? Worse for Uranium with its radiation dangers? Come on Dr. Mphande, this is not like playing with test-tubes in a Laboroatory. Look at Kabwe, the world’s most polluted place on Earth, and see what we have been able to do or fail to do for the safety of the habitat! We must not make decisions based on narrow personal gains, but for the greater good for the MAXIMUM benefits for the maximum numbers of our citizens!
Where is he a Professor? In his chiefdom? Or at the Robert Makasa University?
Prof Mpande (Chief Mpande) was my lecturer in Mineral Economic in the School of Mines at UNZA. He was the first Zambian Chief Mining Engineer in the Ministry of Mines.
yes the country also has the capability and skills to collect rubbish and clean Lusaka, but….
the country also has the skill and capability to run a single railway line , but….
the country also has the skills and capability to runa national air carrier , but…..
His argument is flawed… just because we produce Uranium doesn’t mean we have the skills and knowledge to produce nuclear energy, let alone handle the safety that comes with it. We produce copper too but we import every copper finished product. Well industrialised countries like Australia with vast deserts are still scared shytless to go nuclear energy due to safety concerns. In South Australia there is a huge debate to create a nuclear waste dump in the outback desert that will bring in much needed revenues and the govt is facing stiff opposition from the public.
Please let’s no talk nonsense on things we don’t even understand very well. This Prof has never even seen a nuclear reactor; never visited Chernobyl or Japan’s Fukushima to see the devastation nuclear can cause to a…
continued…
never visited Chernobyl or Japan’s Fukushima to see the devastation nuclear can cause to a nation… and we are talking Japan here with the tech and know-how; try comparing them with a nation that can even handle copper waste in it’s rivers. Please for once, just for once be real!
Professor Mphande I am very skeptical about mining uranium safely in Zambia at this point. Look at how we have managed to mess up Kabwe with lead poisoning.
Besides, how well do we understand our U reserves? And when you talk of reserves which ones do you mean? Measured, Indicated or Inferred?
In addition, we have stock piles of U rich material in NW. Why don’t we start experimenting with what is already on the ground as opposite to start digging up more pollutants?
Prof. Mpande, if you are the First Cabinet minister in Chiluba administration appointed as minister of mines, you are a failure. Don’t again start misleading the nation on nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is very expensive to maintain and to store the waste.
Continue reading books and acquire more titles. Don’t get involved again in national programs.
Zambia may have the capacity but it doesn’t need nuclear power. Production of Nuclear energy requires planning yakukonke fintu pamusula. Its not child’s play because its very dangerous. One mistake and not only Zambia but the whole Southern Africa will get affected. There will be deformed babies everywhere yet you don’t have the hospitals to treat them. Its suicide. Lets stick to the safe sources of energy we abundantly have.
The fear that most of us on this subject is genuine. We know the dangers involved in nuclear energy. But one thing we have to understand is that the developed countries did not fall in place already developed. They had to start from the bottom. They made many mistakes. But then this technology helped them speed up development. Lucky for us, if we were to invest in the same technology, we would have learnt from there mistakes. The truth is nuclear reactors built today and much safer than the old ones. And when it comes to maintenance, well the money generated will help with the management and maintenance. Nuclear energy is more reliable and cheaper to run. what this means is the electrical tariffs will be lower and 90% of the country’s population will be connected. No body was born…
Iwe learnt from their mistakes??? How many things have we copied from them and have done properly having learnt from their mistakes? Just count yourself. Right now you are copying their democracy and doing so miserably
The question is: If we, Zambians can’t maintain toilets in Govt buildings like the Govt Complex, are we able to maintain a nuclear facility?
We can’t even maintain cleanliness in Lusaka City, now we want nuclear station…PLEEEEEESE!!!
Soon, another or two other professors from South Africa will counteract this visionary and objective Professor Mpande with a negative fit similar to the ones we read here from Namwala District! You know which professors will do that, I guess!
My chief. Continue contributing to national development.
I’m afraid, the idea and theories may seem good, but Zambia has no capacity to handle all that is needed in processing Uranium without causing disaster to the environment. Look at lead in Kabwe. Copper pollutants on the C/Belt . it is in these smaller thing we can judge if Zambia can handle highly toxic material. Zambia has failed to monitor and discipline foreign investors causing pollution. Uranium is a No No for Zambia. Lots of countries in Africa have uranium but that does not teach them how to handle it for many years to come. Please don’t start what you can handle.
You know what Uranium is right? Nuclear things
and other things..it’s very dangerous you
know Professor Mpande? Zambia is already poverty stricken, don’t turn it into a Ghost country. Uranium extraction and nuclear power is a dangerous root.
Historians can’t think in a positive way. I refuse to say we can’t do it. We are all created by God. We were given these minerals by him. If Lusaka is dirty it is u who has made it dirty. Not all places are dirty. Do your part to help the nation develope. Doubting Thomas Jesus said it.
Some people can’t think in a positive way. I refuse to say we can’t do it. We are all created by God. We were given these minerals by him. If Lusaka is dirty it is u who has made it dirty. Not all places are dirty. Do your part to help the nation develope. Doubting Thomas Jesus said it.
The adoption of nuclear power is only favored by the government if not wrong to say money hungry politicians, but in a referendum, it would be rejected by citizens as being too dangerous and too expensive. The government did know the reason why they didn’t want to engage the citizens. For example the government ignored the dangers of such a technology in Zambia. A major reason that government favors this form seems to be due to vast amounts of money and effort being put into lobbying by the multinational power companies. Their profits are huge, so they have the funds for lobbying, whereas the NGOs and citizens-at-large, who are against nuclear power and have overwhelming arguments, do not make the same impact because they lack the funds for effective lobbying.