NAIROBI Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- China is interested in cooperating with African countries to enable them to develop nuclear energy, a Chinese state-owned company has revealed.
Yao Hong, a deputy director of International Marketing Department for China Zhongyuan Engineering Corporation, which is the overseas nuclear project platform of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), told Xinhua in Nairobi that Beijing has the technology, construction capacity and financial institutions to enable Africa to exploit nuclear energy safely.
"China is willing to cooperate with African nations to ensure they adopt nuclear energy as part of their energy mix because it is a clean and renewable energy source," Yao said.
"As a world leading nuclear power group, CNNC is willing to share its experience and put forward to our African partners an integrated solution that includes design and construction of various capacity nuclear power plants, nuclear projects financing, human resources training, localization as well as business in nuclear technology applications in industry, medicine and agriculture," he said during the first China-Africa Industrial Capacity Cooperation Exposition that runs to Dec. 16 in Kenyan capital Nairobi.
So far, CNNC has helped Ghana, Nigeria, Syria and Pakistan to build their research reactors in order to assist them to enhance their nuclear technology.
Yao said that Africa is in urgent need of additional power supply in order to accelerate its economic development.
Yao added that nuclear energy has a huge advantage over other forms of energy because it is not weather dependent like solar, wind and hydropower and is therefore a stable source of power.
In addition, the official noted that nuclear energy is currently playing a more and more important role in combating global climate change as well as speeding up replacement of fossil energy.
