E. N. KORENDYASOV Candidate of Economic Sciences Institute of Africa, Russian Academy of Sciences Keywords: nuclear power industry, nuclear energy market, energy strategy, reactor construction The global nuclear power industry is on the rise. 2016 marks the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, and it is gradually fading into oblivion. The Fukushima disaster (2011), contrary to gloomy forecasts, did not have a noticeable negative impact on the pace of construction of new nuclear power plants. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (February 2015), there are 440 nuclear power reactors operating in 30 countries, and 68 new ones are under construction. 1 Against this background, Africa is experiencing an acute energy crisis. It is precisely the lack of electricity that prevents African countries from benefiting from the use of mineral resources. The state of affairs in the energy sector of the African economy can be assessed as depressing. South Africa accounts for more than 40% of the continent's electricity production, and several dozen other countries account for about 60%. The installed capacity of all power plants on the continent is 114 GW. This is the same amount as in Germany, which has a population 14 times smaller than in Africa.2 Per capita electricity consumption in sub - Saharan Africa (SSA) is only 457 kWh, while excluding South Africa, it is 124 kWh per year. For comparison, in developing countries of the world (with the exception of those located on the African continent), this indicator is, on average, 1,155 kW / hr3. More than 70% of the population of the SSA states does not have access to electricity. Thermal power plants run mainly on coal or diesel fuel, and their equipment is morally and physically outdated. In the SSA countries, industrial enterprises lose 56 days a year due to emergency shutdowns (for comparison, in the USA-one day in 10 years) 4. THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE TO NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS The way out, as soon as p ... Read more