Research Article The Choice of Nuclear Energy for Ghana as a Result of Development of Its Energy Production Kwame Gyamfi , 1,2 Sylvester Attakorah Birikorang , 3 Emmanuel Ampomah-Amoako , 3 John Justice Fletcher, 2 and Bernard Osei 1 1 Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, National Nuclear Research Institute, P. O. Box LG 80, Legon, Accra, Ghana 2 Graduate School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences, University of Ghana, P. O. Box AE 1, Atomic Energy, Accra, Ghana 3 Nuclear Regulatory Authority, P. O. Box AE 50, Atomic Energy, Accra, Ghana Correspondence should be addressed to Kwame Gyamfi; kingbascillus@yahoo.co.uk Received 18 April 2020; Revised 3 August 2020; Accepted 5 August 2020; Published 17 August 2020 Academic Editor: Ciro Aprea Copyright © 2020 Kwame Gyamfi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Ghana thought of nuclear energy early in the 1960s but has not been able to realize this dream of generating electricity from nuclear power. Ghana’s electricity generation dates back to the Gold Coast era where the main source of electricity supply (isolated diesel generators) was owned by industrial establishments, municipalities, and other institutions. The electricity sector has developed over the years and has diversified its power generation development to take advantage of available and sustainable sources of energy, mainly hydro, natural gas, liquefied petroleum products, and renewables. These sources sought to increase the electricity production capacity in the country, but unfortunately, it has not been able to catch up with the rate of economic growth, urbanization, industrialization, and rural electrification projects. This has led to Ghana’s persistent energy crisis, with inadequate and unpredictable power supply coupled with erratic and prolonged cuts of electricity to homes, industries, and businesses which is now colloquially referred to in the local parlance as “dumsor.” The Government of Ghana and key stakeholders have therefore decided to add nuclear energy to the energy mix of the country to complement the country’s two main energy sources being hydro and thermal electricity. The details of the developments in the electricity sector leading to the choice of nuclear energy as the best solution for Ghana have been outlined. 1. Introduction Electrical energy is one of the key determining factors of the economic prosperity of any nation. Electricity is essential in every aspect of our daily activities such as lighting, food prep- aration, heating, education, quality healthcare delivery, trans- portation, communication, mining, and powering machines. Thus, it serves as the foundation on which every sector of a country’s economy grows. This underscores how critical and necessary electricity is for quality of life in this modern time. 2. The History of Power Generation in Ghana The generation power in Ghana dates back to the preinde- pendence era, where the source of power was predominantly from isolated diesel generator plants distributed in the country. Most of the power systems at the time belonged to industrial establishments, municipal assemblies, and other organizations. In 1914, the Gold Coast Railway Administra- tion built the first public power generation plant for the oper- ations of the railway sector in Sekondi [1]. The supply was in 1928 made available to Takoradi. Meanwhile, the Public Works Department that was initially in charge of electricity extension had started power supply in Accra in 1922 from a limited direct current (DC). Subsequently, in 1st November 1924, a large alternating current (AC) project followed the DC source. Honorable William Omsby-Gore on 1st April 1926 opened another generating plant consisting of three horizon- tal single-cylinder oil-powered engines installed in Koforidua in the previous year. The extension of power to Kumasi begun in 1926, and it became fully operational on 1st October 1927. Hindawi Journal of Energy Volume 2020, Article ID 8823720, 6 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8823720