Adopt nuclear energy to solve ‘dumsor’ – Casely Hayford

Financial analyst and social commentator, Sydney Casely Hayford has urged government to consider using nuclear energy as an alternative to solving the power crisis in the country.

According to him nuclear energy is cheaper than hydro and in the long run, if managed properly, will inure to the benefit of the country.

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Sydney Casely-Hayford who made the suggestion while contributing to discussions on Citi FM’s news analysis programm, The Big Issue, cited several international scenarios in which nuclear energy has played very crucial roles in power generation.

Ghana is currently undergoing a load shedding exercise due to challenges in its power generation.

The Akosombo dam which previously produces more than 70 percent of electricity for the nation has shut down two of its six turbines because of low water level in its dam.

It is in line with this that government has brought on board several independent power producers, Ameri power and the much hyped Karpower barge as a means of solving the power crisis.

Meanwhile, Mr. Casely-Hayford said because the power generation mix is gradually shifting from hydro to gas which is quite expensive, the nation has to “try and manage the mix so that you get the best rated average cost of production.”

“So somewhere along the line this country should start thinking about the nuclear option because that will give you the cheapest per unit kilowatt hour that you need to deliver. It’s cheaper than hydro, once it’s working,” he added.

Mr. Casely-Hayford further explained that “the Scandinavian countries are thinking way ahead of what we are doing now. They are thinking about solutions that can last and they know very clearly that this whole revolutionary thought of we can use alternative energy mixes, solar here, wind here, they know it won’t work fully.”

“They know that there are instances you cannot use solar or wind to drive it because the capacity is not there. This country has to grow up and the only way we can do it is to actually get involve in doing certain things,” he added.