Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni held talks on Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is on a four-nation African tour, on cooperation in space, space science and nuclear energy.
President Museveni said Uganda was seeking Russian assistance to develop East Africa's first nuclear power plant and expand its space research capacity, and that Uganda had "significant quantities" of uranium essential for power generation and biotechnology.
Uganda announced in May that it had acquired land to build the plant. It previously unveiled plans in 2017 to build a 2,000-megawatt facility by 2032. Africa's only nuclear power plant is near Cape Town, South Africa, while Kenya and Nigeria also have plans to build nuclear power plants.
Uganda relies mainly on hydropower, and according to the Electricity Regulation Authority, the plan will increase its power generation 12-fold to 17,000 megawatts in the medium term.