The INIR -RR mission and the various stakeholders at Boma Hotel, South C Nairobi.
Kenya recently hosted an INIR-RR mission at the Boma Hotel in Nairobi from 11th to 19th December 2023. The INIR mission was coordinated under TC project RAF1009 “Supporting Embarking Countries in Establishing National Infrastructure for Research Reactors (AFRA)”. The National Commission for Science and Technology is the AFRA national coordinator while the Nuclear Power and Energy Agency is coordinating the implementation of the Kenya Nuclear Research Reactor (KNRR) project.
The experts gave their report in which they noted that Kenya had made significant progress in the development of nuclear infrastructure for its first research reactor and could now move to the next stage of a full-fledged program to build a nuclear research reactor. The experts noted that Kenya had done a great job of developing and preparing laws and regulatory documents, actively involving interested stakeholders in the program, and developing human resources of both the future operator and the regulator.” And that Kenya had demonstrated a sustained and very professional approach to the development of the research reactor program.
The research reactor is a primary source of neutron for various applications in education and training, research, health, agriculture, and industry and will aid in Radioisotope Production for research and technical development in the industrial, scientific, and medical sectors in Kenya. The research reactor will also be used by the academic community, especially in material structure studies using Neutron scattering techniques and neutron beams in areas like Materials science, Life science, Engineering science, and Earth science and industries (battery, fuel cell, rubber, steel, automobile). And lastly Neutron transmutation doping (NTD) in the Production of high-quality silicon wafers