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Hecht shows that questions about being nuclear - a state that she calls 'nuclearity' - lie at the heart of today's global nuclear order and the relationships between 'developing nations' and 'nuclear powers'. Nuclearity, she says, is not a straightforward scientific classification but a contested technopolitical one.

Uranium from Africa has long been a major source of fuel for nuclear power and atomic weapons, including the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. In 2002, George W. Bush claimed that Saddam Hussein had \"sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa\" (later specified as the infamous \"yellowcake from Niger\"). Africa suddenly became notorious as a source of uranium, a component of nuclear weapons. But did that admit Niger, or any of Africa's other uranium-producing countries, to the select society of nuclear states? Does uranium itself count as a nuclear thing? In this book, Gabrielle Hecht lucidly probes the question of what it means for something--a state, an object, an industry, a workplace--to be \"nuclear.\" Hecht shows that questions about being nuclear--a state that she calls \"nuclearity\"--lie at the heart of today's global nuclear order and the relationships between \"developing nations\" (often former colonies) and \"nuclear powers\" (often former colonizers). Nuclearity, she says, is not a straightforward scientific classification but a contested technopolitical one.Hecht follows uranium's path out of Africa and describes the invention of the global uranium market. She then enters African nuclear worlds, focusing on miners and the occupational hazard of radiation exposure. Could a mine be a nuclear workplace if (as in some South African mines) its radiation levels went undetected and unmeasured? With this book, Hecht is the first to put Africa in the nuclear world, and the nuclear world in Africa. Doing so, she remakes our understanding of the nuclear age.

This contribution offers a thorough analysis of challenges and opportunities related to the adoption of sustainable energy policies in specific developing countries (i.e., Albania, Brazil, India, Kenya). The use of renewable energy sources must be increased if the world is to meet its climate goals and alleviate the negative effects of fossil fuel consumption. However, due to fiscal restrictions, institutional barriers, and technology limitations, developing countries face particular challenges in adopting such policies. In order to help these countries move towards a sustainable energy future, this study analyses these issues and suggests viable solutions for policymakers.

Previous studies have widely used the aggregate energy consumption in the energy–growth–CO 2 emissions nexus, which may not show the relative strength or explanatory power of several energy sources on CO 2 emissions. However, less explored in empirical literature are the effects of disaggregated levels of renewable and non-renewable energy sources on environmental quality. This study therefore contributes to fill this important gap for South Africa over the period 1960–2019. Our strategy is distinctively different from previous works in the following dimensions: we employ the recently developed novel dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) simulations framework proposed by Jordan and Philips (Stand Genomic Sci 18(4):902–923, 2018) to examine the negative and positive changes in the disaggregated levels of renewable and non-renewable energy sources, trade openness, technique effect, and scale effect on CO 2 emissions. Second, we use an innovative measure of trade openness developed by Squalli and Wilson (World Econ 34(10):1745–770, 2011) to capture trade share in GDP as well as the size of trade relative to world trade for South Africa. Third, we use the frequency-domain causality (FDC) approach, the robust testing strategy suggested by Breitung and Candelon (J Econ 132(2):363–378, 2006) which enables us to explore permanent causality for medium-, short-, and long-term relationships among variables under review. Fourth, we employ the second-generation econometric procedures accounting robustly the multiple structural breaks which have been considerably ignored in earlier studies. For South Africa, the key findings are as follows: (i) hydroelectricity and nuclear energy consumptions contribute to lower CO 2 emissions in the long run; (ii) the scale effect increases CO 2 emissions whereas the technique effect improves it, validating the presence of an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis; and (iii) oil, coal, and natural gas consumptions deteriorate environmental quality. In the light of our empirical evidence, this paper suggests that South Africa’s government and policymakers should effectively study the optimal mix of all available energy resources to meet the increasing energy demands while improving the country’s environmental quality.

Renewable energy has emerged as a promising solution to address the challenges of climate change, energy security, and socio-economic development. South Africa, with its abundant renewable energy resources, has made significant strides in the utilization of renewable energy over the past decade. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the progress of renewable energy advancement in South Africa, examining the policies, initiatives, and achievements in various renewable energy sectors. This study explores the country’s transition from a heavily coal-dependent energy system to a diversified and sustainable energy mix. It analyses the growth of renewable energy technologies, such as wind power and solar photovoltaic (PV), highlighting the key milestones, challenges, and opportunities. Furthermore, this paper discusses the role of government support, regulatory frameworks, and private sector investments in driving renewable energy deployment in South Africa. Finally, it identifies the prospects and potential areas for further advancement in the renewable energy sector. This review aims to contribute to the understanding of South Africa’s renewable energy journey and provides valuable insights for policy-makers, researchers, and stakeholders involved in the sustainable energy transition.

This study is a product of the Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD), a project designed to expand the world's knowledge of physical infrastructure in Africa. The AICD provides a baseline against which future improvements in infrastructure services can be measured, making it possible to monitor the results achieved from donor support. It also offers a more solid empirical foundation for prioritizing investments and designing policy reforms in the infrastructure sectors in Africa. The book draws upon a number of background papers that were prepared by World Bank staff and consultants, under the auspices of the AICD. The main findings were synthesized in a flagship report titled Africa's infrastructure: A time for transformation, published in November 2009. Meant for policy makers, that report necessarily focused on the high-level conclusions. It attracted widespread media coverage feeding directly into discussions at the 2009 African union commission heads of state summit on infrastructure.

South Africa has been experiencing an energy crisis since 2007 and continues to the present. This has resulted in load-shedding (action to interrupt electricity supply to avoid excessive load on the generating plant). One way to address this problem is to further explore the potential and contribution of bioenergy through research conducted and implementing energy reports. Therefore, the study aims to provide the state of bioenergy and its contribution to the country’s economic sector and to enhance the replacement of fossil fuels with bioenergy resources and technology. A total blackout of 15,913 h has been experienced since 2014, according to the weekly system status report released by ESKOM. The power utility (Eskom) responsible for power generation and utility has attributed this problem to insufficient generation and capacity. Based on this, the country is embarking on solving this problem. Although the country is dominated by coal (fossil fuel), constituting 73.8% of the total energy supply, this poses a serious environmental risk and health hazard. Renewable energy is considered an alternative energy source, and its introduction and implementation look promising in reducing and solving the current energy crisis. With abundant renewable energy potential, representing 8.7% of the total energy supply, around 85% is bioenergy. This review’s findings revealed that bioenergy contributed mainly towards heat, and fuels admit other energy sources, which is recommended. Therefore, its deployment on a large scale is promising and possible. This study will guide and further encourage the deployment of bioenergy projects in South Africa.

Recently, energy has been a research area due to increasing awareness of its advantages. Energy is essential for all daily activities and helps the mind and body grows; it has the ability to determine the growth of an economy and the development of a country. However, energy has its disadvantages. Nonrenewable energy is energy such as fossil fuel, which is the main cause of air pollutant emissions, such as carbon dioxide, synthetic fluorinated gases, water vapor, and methane gases; and nuclear energy, its wastes are the main cause of air pollutant. They are also the main cause of global warming, human health, climate change, and environmental degradation from the extraction up to use. Nowadays, fossil fuel energy is used in production and use of energy in all sectors of the world. Nuclear energy is the most powerful energy source. Renewable energy, such as solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, tidal, wave, and hydrogen energy, produces zero greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuels, reducing air pollution and combating climate change, improving public health, mitigating smog and acid rain, and long‐term sustainability. The production and use of this renewable energy has been increasing, but it is not sufficient to meet the demand of all sectors in the world. Hydrogen energy is the future of fossil fuels and nuclear energy, free of CO2 emissions, and radioactive waste. The hydrogen economy envisions using hydrogen as a clean, versatile, and sustainable energy carrier to replace fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We must control the impacts of energy first by knowing the types of energy and their impact, and then totally replace nonrenewable energy with renewable energy in the future by increasing the efficiency of renewable energy. To increase the efficiency of energy production, energy storage (storing high amount of energy in a small space) uses nanomaterials and green nanomaterial technologies. International cooperation and policy alignment will be essential for driving global transition to a sustainable energy future. By leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), the energy sector becomes more sustainable, efficient, and resilient, supporting the transition toward a low‐carbon future. Harmonizing energy policies, sharing best practices, and aligning climate commitments can facilitate the development of a coordinated approach to addressing energy challenges on a global scale. By incorporating these considerations into energy planning and decision‐making, stakeholders can work toward building a future energy system that is sustainable, resilient, and capable of meeting the energy needs of a rapidly changing world. In this study, a critical review of the type, form, storage, advantages, efficiency, respective, and their impact are reviewed. The amounts of energy produced by each type in different years are discussed.

The discourse on the need for water, energy, and food security has dominated the development agenda of southern African countries, centred on improving livelihoods, building resilience, and regional integration. About 60% of the population in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) live in rural areas relying mainly on rainfed agriculture, lacking access to clean water and energy, yet the region is endowed with vast natural resources. The water-energy-food (WEF) nexus is a conceptual framework that presents opportunities for greater resource coordination, management, and policy convergence across sectors. This is particularly relevant in the SADC region as resources are transboundary and supports efforts linked to regional integration and inclusive socio-economic development and security. We conducted an appraisal of WEF-related policies and institutions in SADC and identified linkages among them. The present ‘silo’ approach in resource management and allocation, often conducted at the national level, contributes to the region’s failure to meet its development targets, exacerbating its vulnerabilities. The lack of coordination of WEF nexus synergies and trade-offs in planning often threatens the sustainability of development initiatives. We highlighted the importance of the WEF nexus to sustainably address the sectoral coordination of resources through harmonised institutions and policies, as well as setting targets and indicators to direct and monitor nexus developments. We illustrate the significance of the nexus in promoting inclusive development and transforming vulnerable communities into resilient societies. The study recommends a set of integrated assessment models to monitor and evaluate the implementation of WEF nexus targets. Going forward, we propose the adoption of a regional WEF nexus framework.