HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 400828,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/400828/?format=api",
"text_counter": 128,
"type": "other",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, the same ambassadors who were discouraging us from entering into nuclear projects, in their own countries, about 60 per cent of electricity is generated from nuclear sources. France alone exports nuclear electricity to Spain. When I went to Sweden, I met the head of the nuclear power projects and I asked him how they manage nuclear waste. He told me that they sink it so far down the earth that it cannot, over millions of years cause any possible damage. He went on to show me then a number of trees they had planted in Sweden. I thought to myself that Kenya might not have any capacity to put up a nuclear power plant from local sources, but what would prevent us from doing a Build Operate Project (BOP), so that we source technology from those who have done it, we agree they come and set up a power plant, run it for a few years and what they do to enhance nuclear safety in their own countries, they are supposed to do it to enhance nuclear safety in Kenya. So, with money, it is no longer an issue whether you have technology or not, with money you can always buy technology. The other question was: Where would the nuclear power project be sited in this country? Which people would want a nuclear power plant in their neighbourhood? Given the community activism in the country, this would bring some problems. You can see what has happened in Turkana with Tullow Oil Company. We would expect a lot of debate especially because the NGOs in this country are just “one issue” NGOs. They do not see development in global terms. They only talk about environment or social impact, but they are not able to see that without development, it would even be impossible to maintain good environment. It might be impossible also to maintain high standards of living. I think we have to analyze these NGOs very carefully so that they do not sabotage a project like this which is likely to quickly modernize and industrialize this country. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we were informed that one way of dealing with this issue of where to site a nuclear power project is to take it to the ocean, because we have 200 nautical miles into the ocean which are part of Kenya. We were advised that we get a ship or a barge and put in a container which contains the nuclear power plant and get it floating 100 or 60 kilometres offshore. There are no people there who will come to complain, but all we need is to construct a cable under the ocean which will evacuate power from that nuclear power station to the coast like Mombasa or Lamu and that will cut down the community conflict by half, if not more than half. For the last three years, the nuclear electricity power projects have just been doing studies. They have travelled the world and indeed, we have even funded them to cover the whole continent. They have been to Asia, Latin America, Europe and even South Africa which is the only African country which produces nuclear electricity in a small plant in Cape Town. So, they have covered most of the continent, just to gain experience. Even when there was a problem in Fukuyama, Japan, we dispatched the nuclear electricity project personnel to Japan, to go and find out what went wrong there and when they came back, they said that the problem in Japan was that they were using obsolete technology; technology which was more than 60 years old. Since then, technology has improved, nuclear power generation has become very safe and even for the Japanese, and they are trying to figure out how to replace that obsolete technology with modern technology. The United States of America had been forced by politics to get out of nuclear power projects since the 1970s but the Obama administration had decided to The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}