Rwanda’s energy infrastructure plan focuses on small-scale nuclear-based micro-grids

Almost 35% of Rwandans have no access to electricity, and the country has no oil reserves and little gas reserves.

To help provide electricity and improve quality of life in rural areas, small nuclear reactor supplier Nano Nuclear Energy, in partnership with the Rwandan government, plans to create a microgrid infrastructure that includes micro nuclear reactors – those with a capacity of less than 20 MW – and small modular nuclear reactors ranging from 12 MW to hundreds of megawatts.

Electricity for water and food

Microreactors and small nuclear reactors will help power critical services such as medical facilities, desalination plants and vertical farms, as well as power homes, giving residents better access to water and food, said James Walker, CEO of Nano Nuclear Energy.

“If you live in a remote community and there is no electricity, even access to water and food becomes quite difficult,” Walker said.

Nuclear-based microgrids can be used to create small desalination plants to produce clean water, as well as to run vertical farming operations,

can provide food.

The company plans to deploy its small reactors in Rwanda. Nano Nuclear is currently developing prototype microreactors and small modular nuclear reactors, but none are commercially operated.

Nano Nuclear has signed an agreement with the Rwanda Atomic Energy Board to provide training, technical assistance and educational programs to help get the nuclear industry up and running, Walker said.

The Rwandan government will pay for the training, and Walker expects some funding to come from international investors.

Decarbonisation efforts drive interest in nuclear energy

With efforts to decarbonize energy systems as quickly as possible, interest in small modular reactors and microreactors has grown both in the U.S. and abroad. The Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that the U.S. will need about 700 GW to 900 GW of additional carbon-free and continuous electricity capacity to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Oklo, a small nuclear reactor design company backed by OpenAI founder Sam Altman, is quickly gaining popularity among users of its technology, which is intended to power commercial and industrial facilities.

Oklo’s second fiscal quarter showed customer numbers grew 93% to 1,350 MW over the past year. Many of the customer agreements are non-binding letters of intent and term sheets that Oklo hopes to convert into power purchase agreements (PPAs) over the rest of this year and early 2025, although the company already has some PPAs. Most of the interest is coming from data centers.

In June, DOE announced its intention to fund up to $900 million to support the deployment of new small modular reactor technologies. The funding, made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will encourage the development of smaller, advanced nuclear reactor designs.

Waste Disposal Safety Concerns

Some microgrid providers have expressed concerns about the safety of deploying nuclear power in microgrids, especially in urban areas. By definition, microgrids are located close to the load, and it is unclear whether homeowners or businesses would want a nuclear-based microgrid nearby. To ensure safety, nuclear plants must be safe—sealed—and operators must be able to safely store nuclear waste.

Despite these concerns, increasing efforts are being made to use nuclear power as a microgrid source.

Idaho National Laboratory (INL), in collaboration with software company Xendee, has developed a model that allows users to compare the cost-effectiveness of adding small nuclear reactors to a microgrid alongside other energy sources.

Meanwhile, INL is focusing on industrial decarbonization in microgrid applications, said Timothy McJunkin, a distinguished researcher at INL. “These applications are expected to require the high-quality heat that nuclear energy provides to achieve zero carbon emissions,” he said.

Developing Nuclear-Based Microgrids That Are Cheaper Than Diesel Generators

In Rwanda, one goal is to replace diesel fuel — which is typically imported — in microgrids in rural areas or build new microgrids based on microreactors or small modular reactors in power-starved regions, Walker said. That means developing nuclear-powered microgrids that cost less than remote diesel generators. Nano Nuclear’s research has shown that it’s possible to deploy smaller nuclear reactors in remote northern Canadian communities of about 800 people at a lower cost than using diesel generators, Walker said.

To conduct the study, Nano Nuclear began talking to a number of different industries and regions where microreactors would be deployed to get a sense of the costs of remote diesel fuel. The talks focused on remote Canadian communities, mining sites and island communities, Walker said. The company also talked to a major supplier of diesel generators. Once the diesel fuel costs were established, Nano Nuclear brought in two Wharton School modelers to work with Nano Nuclear engineers to investigate whether the reactors could outperform diesel fuel over the life of the system.

“The capital costs of microreactors were significantly lower than the costs of diesel over the life of the reactor – especially as the number of reactors produced increased – meaning that selling the power over a contracted period to the end user could potentially be cheaper than importing diesel on a regular basis,” Walker said.

Nano Nuclear initially intended to offer nuclear energy courses to graduating Rwandan students with the aim of developing the industry.

The role of renewable energy

Eventually, microgrids deployed in rural Rwanda could use micronuclear reactors or small modular reactors as the base load and add solar, wind or geothermal energy. Or, if existing microgrids include renewable resources, nuclear energy could be added. In some cases, Nano Nuclear would partner with local microgrid companies to deploy the facilities, Walker said.

The plan would require Rwanda to establish licensing requirements and standards, likely modeled on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s licensing requirements.

“We want to see a national regulator and a competent workforce in place, and once that is in place we can start rolling out the reactors,” Walker said.

Implementing small modular nuclear reactors would be more complicated than installing microreactors, Walker said. “A microreactor is like a large diesel generator. You can bring it in, plug it in and start operating.”

Currently, only research reactors are used, mainly at American universities, Walker said.

Regulations and licensing could slow down nuclear technology adoption

It will be easier to develop these smaller nuclear plants in Rwanda because the country has less bureaucracy than other parts of Africa. “Larger African countries like Nigeria are more bureaucratic, whereas the Rwandan system would be very streamlined and very easy to operate,” Walker said.

Nano Nuclear also plans to deploy microreactors and small modular reactors in the U.S., but current Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) standards could slow the process and increase licensing costs, he added.

Nano Nuclear expects deployment of the smaller reactors in Rwanda to begin in 2028.

“We will complete the design and construction of our prototype in the next two to three years. At that time, we should begin the licensing process for the reactor to get it certified by the NRC. Once we get the license, we can begin implementing it as a commercial product,” Walker said.

However, NRC approval does not necessarily mean the numbers will work.

Concerns About Cost of Small Nuclear Reactors

NuScale Power received standard design approval from the NRC for its NuScale Power Module, a small nuclear reactor, in September 2020. However, the company and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems terminated the Carbon Free Power Project in November 2023. NuScale had wanted to advance the six-reactor, 462-MW project with Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems and have it operational in 2030, but cost increases led to several cities withdrawing from the project.

Meanwhile, nuclear startup TerraPower officially started its Natrium reactor demonstration project in Wyoming in June. The first advanced reactor design to move from design to construction is not expected to be completed for five years.

As the energy sector becomes increasingly exposed to decarbonisation, nuclear power has the potential to provide advantages over other energy sources if the right conditions are met.

“A lot of these zero-emission energy systems, like wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower, are location-dependent,” Walker said. They need wind, solar, dams, rivers and geothermal vents. “With nuclear, you can put it anywhere,” he noted.

But concerns about safety and cost remain – concerns that Nano Nuclear hopes to overcome in Rwanda.