Senegal is preparing to build a nuclear power plant with French help, its energy minister said Tuesday at a conference hosted by France to promote civilian use of atomic energy.
The project could make Senegal Africa's second nuclear energy producing country after South Africa, which has two French-designed reactors at Koeberg, near Cape Town.
Senegalese Energy Minister Samuel Amete Sarr told delegates that France and Senegal were working together and that a plant should be online by 2020.
"It is with this timetable in mind that the production of nuclear generated electricity is expected and our country is already getting ready for this," said the minister.
Sarr said the reactor project would be preceded by a major infrastructure development plan between 2012 and 2020.
President Nicolas Sarkozy opened the 65-nation conference in Paris on Monday by offering French know-how to build nuclear reactors, which he said would be a safe and efficient source of clean energy all over the world.
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