On May 10, 2022, the Uganda government said in a statement that the International Atomic Energy Agency had approved Uganda's plans to build East Africa's first nuclear power plant. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was informed of the approval by Irene de Kreuzer, the IAEA's director of African affairs.

"Uganda is ready to build the plant. Our agency is ready to get all the support through training to make this project a reality," said Des Cloizeaux. The IAEA team of experts visited Uganda in December for an eight-day visit to Review the infrastructure development of its nuclear programme. Museveni responded that Uganda is developing nuclear energy to make up for the lack of hydropower, which is currently its main source of electricity generation.

Uganda's energy minister, Sidronius Opolot Okasai, said the government had adopted the IAEA's three-step approach to kickstart the nuclear industry. This consists of a learning phase, followed by the formation of the institutional foundation, and finally the initiation of a construction project. Land has now been secured to build a 2GW nuclear facility, which will be part of Uganda's medium-term goal of nearly 12-fold increase in power generation to 17GW. Keywords: engineering construction, engineering news

About 70 percent of Ugandans are still using wood fuels such as firewood and charcoal in 2020, according to Statistics Uganda, raising concerns about deforestation. Uganda has so far trained 22 nuclear engineers to master's level. A school will be established to train more nuclear industry personnel. The IAEA was established in the 1950s under the Eisenhower Administration's Atoms for Peace initiative. Its brief is to assist countries in developing a civilian nuclear industry in exchange for inspected and verified assurances that nuclear weapons will not be developed.Editor/XingWentao