Zambia, nuclear power and Edwin Simfukwe’s story

Written by allaboutenergy.net on April 4, 2021. Posted in Current News

Image: Zambia Daily Mail

This newsletter is intended for students, teachers, parents, people in many industries, and leaders in business and government. It is sent to people in 124 countries. We discuss energy, energy by-products, the environment, people who use energy and politicians who make energy decisions. The Newsletter Supplement focuses on a single subject, the story of Edwin Simfukwe and the develoment of nuclear energy, nuclear technologies, and nuclear medicine in Zambia.

EDWIN SIMFUKWE from Zambia, nuclear engineering student in Moscow, Russia

Edwin, 20 years old, and currently a preparatory faculty student at Obninsk Institute for Nuclear Power Engineering in Russia. He will be studying nuclear power engineering and thermal physics after his preparatory faculty.

He chose to study nuclear power engineering in Russia because it has more than 75 years of experience in this sector to equip him with the necessary knowledge and skills needed for Zambia and Africa’s development. Russia is also one of the countries with the best nuclear technologies. For instance, if you talk of the first nuclear power plant connected to the grid in the world it is in Russia. The first floating nuclear power plant it is also in Russia. The most experience with fast neutron reactors, it is Russia.

Edwin has a lot of passion for the economic development of his country and Africa at large. The energy sector is a very important sector for any country’s development. As a result he wanted to study electrical engineering initially. Everything changed when he attended the National Junior Engineers, Technicians, and Scientists competition (JETS) in chemistry olympiads.

There, he saw a lot of projects on the ways of generating electric energy but none of them triggered his fancy because many were not a solution for dealing with real climate change from all causes. To deal with real climate change, you need plentiful, reliable energy, not biofuels, wind and solar.

Fortunately, while preparing for the olympiads he came across a chemistry question on ways of generating electric energy and after doing research he was amazed by nuclear energy. It sounded like science fiction from Star Trek. Technology wise, a nuclear reactor seemed like a fancy way of boiling water.  He also became intrigued by the scale of the disaster a nuclear boom can bring.

Then fast forward to when he attended a career exhibition held by Africa Young Generation In Nuclear at Mulungushi conference centre in Lusaka when he was in high school and that’s when all the questions he had about nuclear science got answered, questions like; How safe is it? How can nuclear waste be managed?  And questions about Fukushima, Nagasaki and Chernobyl nuclear disasters etc. What shocked him is that 80% of the people in Zambia and Africa are anti-nuclear. They believe that it’s something that will wipe out the human race and is mainly associated with booms.

He got interested in studying nuclear science and engineering so that he could change the perspective of nuclear power in Africa and maybe at some point influence politicians in many African countries to invest in this type of technology because it is the solution to the existing energy crisis Africa is facing.

Not only that, but nuclear technologies have a wide range of applications from Agriculture, Industry to Health. In the agriculture sector nuclear technologies can help African farmers produce high yield and resilient crops and prolong the shelf life of their agricultural produce. Nuclear technologies can also protect animals from diseases.

In the human health sector nuclear technologies can help Africa treat cancer, a disease which many Africans suffer from. Therefore, most Africans must understand all these benefits of nuclear power and nuclear radioisotopes technologies and not the myths behind it. African policy makers can invest in nuclear technology without second thoughts.

CONCLUSIONS

There are many lessons to learn from Edwin Simfukwe’s story and Zambia’s leadership.

1) Young people in Zambia are keen to learn about nuclear power and radioisotopes for industry and nuclear medicine. The 2021 government in the United States and some European countries are focusing on wind and solar energy. Many people in North America and Europe have little interest in nuclear power and radioisotopes for industry and medicine. Zambia is preparing for the future. These other countries are not.

2) Nuclear engineering students around the world study where they see support for nuclear power and nuclear technologies: Russia and China.

3) Fear mongers are at work in Zambia, not just North America and Europe.

4) Edwin Simfukwe has set a high standard for himself. He does not follow the 1.00 rule for personal improvement. He follows the 1.01 or 1.001 rule for improving himself everyday. If you follow the 1.00 rule, you don’t improve yourself at all. By following the 1.01 or 1.001 rule, means that you work to improve yourself by 1 percent or one-tenth of a percent every day. Edwin will go far in life and become a leader.

5) Edwin Simfukwe and Zambia can be excellent examples for people in North America, Europe, and other countries.

What kind of life do you want?

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