Kenya Nuclear Electricity Board's Ochilo Ayacko elected chair of AFCONE

Kenya said Monday that Nuclear Electricity Board Executive Chairman Ochilo Ayacko was elected chair of the African Commission on Nuclear Energy (AFCONE) at the fifth ordinary session of the commission at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The two-day summit, which took place earlier this month, drew delegates drawn from various African countries, including Cameroon, Algeria, Mali, Mauritius, Senegal, Togo, Zimbabwe and Kenya. The delegates discussed the monitoring of state parties’ compliance with their nonproliferation obligations, nuclear and radiation safety and security, nuclear sciences and applications, as well as partnerships and technical cooperation.

The Addis Ababa meeting follows last month’s 3rd Africa Conference on Energy and Nuclear Power, which was hosted by the Kenya Nuclear Electricity Board in Diani, Kwale County, for which 200 delegates attended. An increasing number of developing countries, including some in Africa, are considering introducing nuclear power as part of their energy mix or expanding their use of nuclear power.