Ethiopia and Russia sign a treaty urging the development of a nuclear power facility

Rosatom, the state-owned Russian nuclear enterprise, was quoted by the RIA news agency as stating that Russia and Ethiopia signed a deal on Thursday that calls for the planning and construction of a nuclear power plant in the east African nation.

Ashebir Balcha, the CEO of the Ethiopian Electric Company, and Aleksei Likhachev, the general director of Rosatom, signed an action plan on the facility’s development and construction during a nuclear power summit, according to RIA.

According to the paper, the two parties decided to draft a comprehensive construction plan, a “road map” for the project’s technical and financial underpinnings, and an intergovernmental agreement to move forward.

The deal also mandates that employees receive training on how to run the plant and advance the nuclear industry.

Ousmane Abarchi, the mining minister of Niger, had already stated that his nation wished to collaborate with Rosatom to construct two 2,000 megawatt nuclear reactors.

Although Egypt is building reactors, South Africa is the only nation in Africa with an operational nuclear power facility.