Google News Yemen Observer - Yemen’s electricity generating and distribution capacity is currently vastly deficient in meeting the public’s electrical needs. Less than one-third of households in Yemen have access to electricity from the national power grid. Most cities have regular rolling blackouts, and in rural areas, only 13 percent of the population has access to the national grid.

Yemen’s electricity shortage, in addition to harming the quality of life, has a negative impact on economic development, and foreign investment. Yemen’s electrical requirements will grow substantially as Yemen’s population of 20 million is expected to double in less than 25 years. Nuclear energy could be one solution to the country’s electricity problems, said Dr. Moustafa Y. Bahran, Science and Technology Advisor to the President of Yemen and Chairman of the National Atomic Energy Commission of Yemen.

“Energy enables agricultural countries to produce food and those who can not produce food to buy it. Thus, we can say that the national energy security is taking a big part of the general national interest to cover the future and present needs,” he said. “This energy security is the one which is leading the international policies to control the energy sources in the world,” said Bahran. “A nation without energy security is a nation without a future.”

Critics of nuclear energy point out that it is not without risks. There is, for example, the possibility of an accident at a nuclear plant, such as the lethal accident that occurred at Chernobyl, a nuclear power plant in the former USSR (now Ukraine), in 1986, killing scores of people. Also, a nuclear power plant presents a huge security risk. If the technology falls into the wrong hands, nuclear weapons production could pose a global threat. Also, the threat of nuclear waste and reactor malfunction, both potentially producing toxic radiation, need to be considered But nuclear energy could dramatically boost the economic and social development of developing countries, said Bahran.

“It could be a strong economic and developmental motivation.” In a lecture entitled “The Future of Nuclear Energy in Yemen” held last Wednesday, Dec. 13, organized by the al-Afif Cultural Foundation, Bahran declared that the country will start working on producing nuclear energy in 2007. “This could be the best solution for the problem of producing electricity in Yemen,” he said. “The total production of electricity in Yemen is only 700 mega watts.

This is not enough for human needs, let alone the industrial and agricultural needs. This production only suffices for about 53 percent of the Yemeni population. We need a scientific solution to overcome this shortage in energy,” said Bahran. “Science has no limitation and producing electricity through nuclear energy, which is not impossible but very close,” he said. “We expected the production of electricity through nuclear energy to be quintupled in the coming five years.”

This nuclear energy project is part of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s election program. Saleh has invited the private sector to participate in renewable energy activities in Yemen, and agreed to buy electric stations generated by foreign or local companies. Saleh has also declared that Yemen will use nuclear energy to cover the shortage of electricity in the country, in cooperation with the United States and Canada. “We will generate electrical energy from nuclear energy in cooperation with the United States and Canada,” said Saleh. “In the first stage, we will generate 20,000 mega watts.”

A national committee headed by Abdul-Aziz Abdul-Ghani, head of the State Consultative Council, has been formed to tackle this issue. Bahran and Abdul-Kareem al-Arhabi, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, are also members of the committee. “The NAEC has negotiated the project with a number of American and Canadian companies to produce electricity through nuclear energy,” Bahran said. “The government of Yemen is going to support these companies with security, safety and lands. It is also going to buy electricity from these companies.”

In his new book, Nuclear Energy: A Look at the Future, Bahran followed the cost of the electricity power sources’ unit, the kilowatt-hour, through the years 1999-2004 in the United States. He compared the cost of power in the four sources used in producing electricity. Nuclear power costs $0. 0168 per kilowatt-hour, while coal costs $0.0192; gas $0.0587; and oil $0.0539. Nuclear energy is the cheapest, even cheaper than coal, which contributes to 40 percent of the world’s electricity production, according to Bahran’s book. In addition, coal, gas, and oil reserves will eventually be exhausted, and are consistently increasing in price while nuclear energy has a stabilized price.

Coal is also very dangerous, because it pours carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming and climate change. Bahran founded the National Atomic Energy Commission of the Republic of Yemen, which is now one of the leading organizations in the region. He has been able, through NATEC, to build one of the most effective Regulatory Systems for the Safety and Security of Radioactive materials in the world.

In the areas of the peaceful application of Nuclear Energy, NATEC, in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency under Bahran’s leadership, has been able to introduce relevant technologies servicing the developmental processes in Yemen. “The NAEC is establishing a number of projects in areas such as public health, agriculture, industry, water resources, environment, and many others in Sana’a and Dhamar governorates,” he said. “Since these projects have achieved amazing results, and because of its being a healthy, safe, and inexpensive energy for the society and individual, there will be more experiments on other coming projects,” said Bahran. “Today Yemen is reaping the benefits of nuclear technology.”

Nuclear energy has many other uses other than power generation. In medicine, for example, it can be used to diagnose and treat various diseases. The first Radiation Oncology Center and the first Nuclear Medicine Center in Yemen were established under Bahran’s leadership. Since 2000, Bahran has been heavily involved both regionally and internationally in the global efforts to strengthen Nuclear and Radiological Security, both technically and politically.

He as participated in countless national, regional and international professional meetings related to Nuclear Safety and Security and the Peaceful Application of Atomic Energy in addition to representing his country in many political events worldwide. Bahran has been one of the strongest advocates of the International Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime.
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