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On 23 September 2025 Namibia's Cabinet formally approved the Nuclear Industry Strategy at its 22nd ordinary meeting, marking the first comprehensive nuclear policy framework in Namibia's history. The strategy is built around three interlocking pillars:
1. Uranium value-chain capture. The strategy mandates pre-feasibility and feasibility studies for uranium conversion plants (UO₂ / UF₆ production) and fuel fabrication facilities, targeting domestic processing of the ~6,000–7,000 tU/yr that Namibia currently exports as raw yellowcake. This is the same upstream-capture logic applied by Namibia's 2023 critical-minerals ban (export ban on unprocessed ore), now extended to uranium. Rössing Uranium (Rio Tinto, ~2,000 tU/yr), Husab (CGNPC, ~3,500 tU/yr), and Langer Heinrich (Paladin Energy, ~1,600 tU/yr at planned restart) are the three commercial mines whose output the strategy targets.
2. Flagship diversification projects. Cabinet authorised pre-feasibility studies for:
Namibia's ~50% reliance on imported power (predominantly from Eskom/South Africa and Zambia).
export.
to anchor the Nuclear Institute of Namibia's training and R&D mandate.
3. Nuclear Institute of Namibia (NIN). A new statutory body responsible for training, research, and technical cooperation. NIN will coordinate with the IAEA to meet the 19 infrastructure milestones defined in IAEA Safety Guide SSG-16 (Establishing the Nuclear Infrastructure) as prerequisites for countries embarking on commercial nuclear power. Oversight shifts from the Ministry of Mines and Energy to the National Planning Commission (NPC) under the Office of the President — an unusual elevation that signals nuclear is treated as a sovereign national-development priority rather than a sectoral extractives policy.
Regulatory architecture overhaul. Cabinet simultaneously approved a rewrite of the Atomic Energy and Radiation Protection Act (Act No. 5 of 2005). Key changes:
nuclear regulatory authority** with its Director becoming Chief Nuclear Regulator answerable directly to Parliament.
decommissioning for reactors, uranium-fuel-cycle plants, and radioactive-waste repositories.
geological repositories**. The revised Atomic Energy Act is expected to be tabled in Parliament in 2026.
would structurally alter the global uranium conversion market (currently dominated by Orano/France, ConverDyn/US, Rosatom/Russia, CANDU Energy/Canada). A Namibian conversion facility would provide EU utilities a non-Russian feed source and reduce geographic concentration in the fuel-cycle front-end.
the dominant single source of Chinese yellowcake imports; a state-directed value-addition mandate could conflict with CGNPC's own integrated fuel-cycle plans.
NuScale, BWXT, or Chinese HTR-PM designs are candidates), it would be the first operational SMR in Sub-Saharan Africa, setting a procurement and regulatory template for the region.
ban (prohibiting export of unprocessed ore for 23 minerals) did not explicitly cover uranium (radioactive materials are typically governed separately). The Nuclear Industry Strategy is the uranium-sector parallel: rather than a ban, it creates positive industrial-development obligations that structurally raise the cost of exporting unprocessed yellowcake.
enacted, the current NRPA-governed framework remains operative.
approval date.
domestic conversion scale (minimum economic scale is typically ~5,000 tU/yr UF₆).
Treaty obligations (Namibia is IAEA-safeguarded; SMR introduction would require enhanced safeguards agreements).