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We are focusing more on the challenges that we have in our black community in the States
and also in the US, making people feel like needed for further research in the media.
The nuclear industry, just like any other industries,
mine
but that is good
everyone is
okay
that's right
and since you've been so much in the nuclear community and involved with a whole range and
spectrum of interests, I wonder like are you very much into the African young generation in nuclear,
can you tell us a little bit about them, I understand from when we met in 2016, I remember
you mutated the idea of having the African group among the young people that are interested in nuclear
and in subsequent meetings we saw how we pushed for that idea to become reality and that's the
African young generation we have today and I would say that you are very much instrumental to
this reality and kudos to you for that, a round of applause, oh yeah that's the case so
please can you tell us like since you are the advisor of Ayg and where is where is he headed today
and do you think that there is hope with this kind of network of people and do you think it has
any useful contribution to the nuclear future in Africa, yeah well first of all let me make a
correction there it wasn't 2016 it was 2014, oh yeah thank you 2014 yeah it was 2016 that it um yeah yeah yeah
it took off in 2016 thanks for that correction, yeah but it was in 2014 we met in Burgos and
we just happened to be you know we were there representing our individual local professional
societies from wherever we were and I think you were in South Korea at the time right, yes yes yes
I was coming from the US of course and I was also part of the IYNC organizing group at the time
but I mean to answer your question you know at the end of the day you know you got to start from
somewhere if you remember you just re-jug your memory you know we're all sitting in a conference room
and everybody every continent was being called the other North American young generation nuclear
blah blah blah the Asian you know young generation blah blah blah the European you know nuclear network
blah blah blah so everybody was being represented and it just happens to be myself you um uh what's
his what's her name Jelani, Pamela uh uh uh what's her name again um um and few other people
I think was six it was six of us I believe Phylesi, Phylesi I think you were yeah Phylesili
Phylesili that's right Phylesili and the other sister from South Africa Imbella Imbella I always
forget I always tend to say her name off but anyway the long story short you know we looked at each other
and like everybody's being represented in Africa what can we do about it and we after the conference
we started having discussions you know developing the idea and then 2016 of course um it took off
after we had a lot more representatives from Africa at the IYNC conference again in China
yeah we had like GP came on board at that time you know and a few other people
he was at that conference too and all of them now are the leaders of this organization so I see
all that to say you know um and this is what you know the kind of uh I would say the vision of
what I was hoping this organization would would would be he's a collective effort of Africans living
in Africa working in Africa going to school in Africa leading the organization um um and I'll
be honest I'll be totally honest with you that um the leadership that we have since then um have been
amazing GP's leadership princess uh who came on board later on who's our communication channel
Evelyn vice president you know GP the president um you know all of them have have you know take this
idea which was an idea and make it very practical and now we have created um uh a pool I would say
or pool wherein you know Africans living in the continent that want to go into nuclear science
and technology you know they can use this tool they would they don't have to reinvent again the tool
or use this tool which is already there um and that's really really our goal if you go to our
AfricanYGN.org um you will see the our mission is to empower empower Africans in nuclear science
and technology and see how we can take this mission of in of of help in the socio-economic
issues we have in our country through um promoting peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology
and he has he has so many different users in the industry I come from the energy industry so I can
talk more about the energy in the industry but there are so many other uses in nuclear science
and technology so um to answer your question the african young generation nuclear the leadership
has been immense and I just can't wait to see what this organization will do in the future
that's awesome because I believe honestly as I continue to be the advisor for the group
um just giving them my experience that I've had I haven't been part of the global
nuclear industry here in the united states uh with the african young with the north american
young generation nuclear and having worked at a nuclear power plant itself for about 14 years
myself so using all that experience and just trying to give back to the continent man you know
that's what I'm that's really actually what what I really really the message I wanna I want to
express is giving back to the continent um having the continent has given me a foundation
that I've built on since I moved to the united states 20 plus seconds ago done awesome like with
that alone I think the future is very much guaranteed for you and I think posterity will
never forget you for this great great great effort which you have done and um I see as time keeps
going on and development keeps happening and events keeps turning out in Africa the the main
factor the main thing that is affecting the development and deployment of nuclear is is
not because of anything but mainly leadership and I believe that with the right people in in the
right place they will be able to get this dream to reality so I want to ask would you do you have
any kind of explanation to the kind of activities you you by engaging you said that you worked in
the nuclear power plant so can you have give us a kind of overview of maybe your daily routine and
you worked as an operator right did you no no actually I'm an engineer okay okay okay okay so you
you are a design engineer with systems in here kind of so I don't know like what we are the like
kind of things that you do it's a while on the job like is it something that somebody
who gets trained for a short time can do or you need a specialized maybe need to do have a line
of course that you did maybe from the graduate because the other time I was talking with Emilia
Yannis from European Nuclear Society she is just a communications person but she she got
nuclearized through training over the 10 years she was in the industry so I wouldn't know like what
we are the things that equip you to function optimally in this position in the nuclear reaction
environment a nuclear power plant environment very good question the misconception is you have
to be a nuclear engineer or nuclear science is to be working in the nuclear industry but the beauty of
of the industry is you can come with whatever your background is and at the end of the day is
application and that's what really and truly I believe life is all about what you have gained
and how you apply it and the nuclear industry is no different of course like any other industry like
any other industry when you come with your own whatever requirements or whatever degrees you
cut you you have that company would have to train you and the nuclear industry is no different
when I went to college I got my bachelor's in electrical engineering I got my minors in
math mathematics but when I interviewed for the job I interviewed for the job as an engineer
and then once once I got there in this case the design engineering group because I wanted to be
in design because design gives me an opportunity wherein I learned so many different things as compared
to systems engineering wherein you are you know you're trained to understand everything needs to know
about a certain system that's assigned to you whereas design engineering allows you to look at different
systems at any given time you assign so many different projects so you learn different projects
and you look at different design design opportunities solutions so I love
complicated solutions so I mean you can come with whatever whatever degree you have
whatever degree you have and you know use those applications to do whatever you know
whatever it is that you that you're to be trained to do and in this case since I was trained as
electrical engineer I had for instrumentation and controls and I worked in a design engineering
group for eight years and then after eight years working in that group I worked from you know
different different projects as a project engineer as an engineer working mostly on instrumentation
and control which is like just a project of electrical engineer really um um and we working
more on instrumentations and looking at the behavior of those instruments for the given systems
that they that are they that they are they are in or or they installed in so at the end of the day
you know anybody any don't don't be scared whatsoever you know if you're going for electrical
engineering mechanical engineering if it's communication even in law you have folks
that that studied law but they come into the nuclear industry you have
maybe like etium because you you understand the theory of of nuclear science and technology
and you're able to apply you know what you got what your background was on and folks from the
regulatory industry yeah they have a lot of folks that had law and they in the regulatory side
of the industry you know like in this case this lady is communication okay because yeah yeah yeah
anything at all in the african content that's one of the things we need right perfect yeah you got it so
uh you talked about maintenance and operations of bwrs uh can you tell us something that is
um a bit special with the bwrs that we cannot find because some people don't really know what bwrs
is so can you explain to us what bwrs is please
sorry sorry for the jaggers you know we in the nuclear industry have uh have a habit
have a habit of acronyms because over time you know you just do these acronyms and everybody
that asks you what is this about but in in this case sorry for the background noise again my
son is trying to get something that he really needs um bwrs in the nuclear industry and in this
case the energy of the utility industry you know over the years we have the most dominant types of
reactors which is the major reactors is the boiling water reactor and the pressurized water reactors
um the big difference is just a matter of how you how you transition from um from creating that energy
within the reactor and and and transition in that through uh uh uh uh uh uh the different systems
before you create before you generate electricity so at the end of the day in one in one design which
in the boiling water reactor as the name is you boil the water in a reactor and the energy from
from from from from the fission process and the reactor um that's creates some type of steam and that
steam is transitioned through pipes through a mechanical way of uh of uh uh uh of an equipment of
an instrument equipment in this case of the planet and from there you know you created energy that energy
mechanical energy is then converted to you know uh yeah and that can explain the energy which goes to the
generator so in the pwr you don't allow the waters to boil in the reactor right you take that you take
you take that energy you know um and bring it through um steam steam generators and within the steam
generation that's where the steam is being created the same steam that was in the boiling reactor that
you transition through uh a mechanical mechanical conversion uh to be converted to electrical energy
so those are two particularly main two differences at the end of the day um once you understand
which you know which is which i haven't walked in the pwr interestingly all my years of
water reactor we understand the theory and everything about it but i've never worked in a pwr
even when i supported some of the some of our other sister plants um the only i remember the only
the the support the plant that i supported also years back i think it was like 2009 or 10 or somewhere
around that thing was a bwr you know um it's a bit yeah so all my career has been in in the boiling
water reactors okay that's very interesting um ak you you talked about you having great passion
for capacity building research development leadership um advocacy mentoring knowledge
transfer adventure sports above all uh and a lot of family values as we have in traditional
societies like ours in africa so i would say uh and as a form of question like what kind of things
has helped you to um become who you are now do you have maybe um a trend or some materials or
some kind of attitude or place or environment if you may say that helped you to rise to the level of
because i consider it's a very great um um do i say capacity to work in a nuclear power plant
environment so what would you say has helped you generally as an individual to to to get to this
level of development and also contributing to operating the reactor uh oh man i haven't
operated a reactor but i mean like walking in the environment walking in the nuclear power plant
environment yes yes yes just so our our our our listeners don't think i've operated a reactor
myself but i keep mistaking that you operate so yeah i know everybody everybody you're not the
only one you know for whatever reason even in some of the conferences that we go for whatever reason
i don't know why folks tend to think i'm an operator but i've never been an operator i would have
loved to be a friend but anyway to ask you a question oh man you know in africa as you know
very well we have a comment saying that he takes a village to raise anybody um and my experience um
that i've gained since i can't even remember um to get to where my today is a combination of a lot of people
but by far the foundation um that i have from back home our educational system we had there
years ago because now i know the educational system is very different from when i was growing up yeah
um the educational system prepared me by the time i moved to the states i was still
i think it was like 19 almost yeah almost 18 going on 19 so literally i've spent all of my
20s and 30s and 40s in in the united states but um but that's why biggie back it began for me the
foundation that i i had in the schools in in africa our educational system um has prepared me for
where i how i got here today you know um and hopefully one second
telling you he's uh he's everywhere yeah um but uh but sorry about that excited
yeah very very strong i would say back then um prepared me for when i got here and
went i did one more year of high school even though i graduated from high school from from back home
but you know how it is back home you graduated you will like succeed because when i came here i was
already in the sixth form when i came yeah but i came back and uh figured out the best way to understand
the system in united states was go back to high school and just understand how things are done here
but i would say um that was the foundation for me our school system in africa was great
and it's sad now when i go back and i visit and i see how much our educational system has degraded
so what do you think can be done to bring it up to to stand that what do you oh man um i know it's
at the end it's it's it's man it's it's man don't open a can of warmth not open a can of worms yeah
but at the end of it yeah i'm telling you you know by the end of the day it comes down to leadership
you know i'll be totally honest with you brother um and you know when you and i have you have known
you now for why almost six years seven years when we have our discussion one of the things
that is lacking in our continent is leadership yeah and for the few leadership that we have had
some of the countries we see the difference okay we see the difference um in how things are being
done there one second so
awesome awesome awesome
awesome okay all right want to be part of want to be part of the web
but um but yeah so i'll be honest with you brother at the end of the day is the leadership
and in what we're lacking in our continent in general is leadership and even just our regular
communities here in the diaspora yeah you see the leadership qualities that we lack and i think
is something that can be trained um and one of the things that i've been able to even in my role
as an advisor is when i this african young generation in nukle is not only about education
he's not only about research and development yeah but it's about training our members to be
good leaders yeah you know um and if we can lead us we can change we can change our continent
i really really do believe that because we have the resources we have the knowledge we have the capacity
to achieve whatever we would like to achieve you've just said a very salient point we should have
some kind of leadership masterclass for the african young generation in nukle to train people
right right very important right i mean even i think that should be a side event if i may say
yeah so i mean what i try to do even within my role as as as the yg and advisor is our membership
is i try in my role as an advisor in of itself is trying to mental folks leadership leadership
skills what it takes um to empower people you know um we we feel go together and then and i think
you and i have had this discussion before yeah i like listen there's not saying that you go alone you get
the quicker right but if you're together it's very sustainable and that's that is that is what
we need to do back home to recalibrate because it's not like the idea is not there the mentality
is what needs to be recalibrated that we listen we can gather but what it would take to do that is
we have to have patience for one another yeah we have to be listen to one another very true and at
the end of the day if your idea that you present is not accepted by the majority it's okay yeah it's okay
very very you know it doesn't have to be because your idea is not is is not um accepted by the by the
majority you kind of move away from the objective or the mission of what you try to accomplish once
we're able to do some of these few things very small little things i think we'll be able to achieve
anything we put our minds to and a y g a right now as i speak is a testament to that um uh so you
you know the inside and out of yeah of but look where we are today because we are able to work with
one another yeah even though look at if you look at the leadership of a y g right now yeah the
that were there in 2014 that started that that came up with this this vision you know people tend to
want to think you know it's soland truly my vision but it's not more of my vision it's more of we start
on that table and we thought we thought about what can we do we left out working right but if you
look at our leadership right now nobody that was there that created that started the idea a part of
the leadership and that's what that's one of the things i wanted in my humble opinion to communicate
with our our our our community is not only here in amer not only in africa but even in daspora
because i believe the daspora can bring so much back home um to to to impact folks so i say all that to say
he doesn't always have to be oh this is my idea he has to be the my way or the highway no that other
people need it's okay to empower others to become something if you do that you see a lot of things
would happen very true so um ek i wonder like looking at the african context and what we have
the infrastructure deficit and stuffs like that i wonder what do you think do you think
nuclear is the most fitting solution to our energy needs or we need something else something
that is more easily deployable or easier way you can balance our need and um uh yeah the benefit to risk
and stuffs like that like do you think that nuclear is really what we need now or something else
we'll solve our problems better maybe it's for the near future or at what state or can you align our
our kind of progress with the nuclear dream good very good question um the way i would like to
answer this question i don't like the idea of there's only one solution there are various ways of
skin of skin in the cat as they would say back home right um we kind of like is kind of like
politically incorrect now these days to say but but um but there are different ways you can
achieve the same thing so i would say rather than nuclear being the only solution the biggest
solution to our energy needs it could be part it can be part of our energy needs now how how
how will go about that again it goes back to leadership because the excuse that we make for
nuclear energy in general is the capital it takes to to to build this new react and you know
reactors in in the continent it's like oh you know we don't even have the basic needs in the
continent how can we afford to even build a 1000 megawatt electric um um reactor you know so i say at
the end of the day it comes down to leadership so i wouldn't say it is the is the main um um is the
savior for our energy needs but it can be um in the energy mix now what what we should be really
really happy and what i'm hoping we embrace i mean one of the things that i've been pushing whenever i have
whenever i have an audience is um this idea of the small molecule reactors are honestly and truly
to believe that african the african continent should embrace this idea of small modular
reactors and i'll give you one reason and one main one good reason why i think if we embrace this
this this idea of the small molecule reactors and we've seen some of the designs that have already
been approved especially here in the u.s. like new scale you know they've approved their designs for
for implementation um it's just a matter of them um advertising their their design out within the
united states and outside the united states but the what i want to get to why i believe the smr would
probably bring the solution um to some of our energy needs you know instead of you know
a big big big molecule reactor is um typically when we say an smr we're looking at 300 megawatts
electric um output right so if we look at our existing um energy needs especially in this case
the electrical grid our electrical grid in most of the african countries can hand over
a 1000 megawatt electric output so right so if we plan ahead again again it's liturgy
if we plan ahead and say you know what we're gonna plan ahead in this location we're gonna put
four um 300 megawatt electric so that's about 1200 eventually we're gonna help so what we're
gonna do is the 300 that we install for the time being let's say it takes two years to do that
two or three years to build that one right we install our 300 megawatts but we plan to have four
in there so once we build up that first 300 we can do that you know side by side by upgrading
our electrical grid so i'll handle in the future in the next 10 years next 20 years um the other three
smrs that we're going to build in that location yeah and some of the people we are of the school of thought
that maybe for industrial applications like you know the dangote industries he could just have one
in his industry and then the um overflows or the excess energy he can sell it to the
residential around so i i quite agree with you while we are trying to build up our grid making
it more reliable and to be able to take the heavy load that comes from the reactors we can also
apply directly to where it is most needed like in the industry so yeah quite agree with you in that yeah
yeah very correct
yeah like like smrs the smr is is is a beautiful design that i believe for africa this is this is
for us i know here here in most of the development nations they talk about using it for like some of the
you know some of these wind farms that are that are that are obsolete outdated like you know what
how about we just bring a small monitor reactor and put it there um and and that should do the job
but for us if we get if we're able to do this energy mix wherein you can have
renewables you can have in this case um um um reactor nuclear reactor power what that also
allows us to do from an economic standpoint is the the electrical bill is definitely going to be
easier to pay when you have multiple sources of electricity coming in rather than depending on this one
or one most african countries depend on one source of electrical supply and what typically happens
that the way you are right now um when something is wrong with that with that generator or something
there's a shortage in in in oil there's such a in coal um now we have a problem because this is
the all this is the one source we have and need a high price yes yeah so all of africa some of
some of the challenges we have is depending on one thing one was that one thing those you know
we're in trouble so if we diversify our portfolio and um and make sure we have all this different
mature sources of energy we can do a lot of things and one of the things that when i when i went back
to school i did my masters in energy systems a few years back um one of the things that uh i had discussed
with the department um at the time for my entry uh he had like an entry letter that he had to write
yeah i believe in the 21st century in other for africa in order for africa to move forward yeah
most important thing we have to be able to address is our energy needs very good because everything else
every infrastructure you can think about is based on our energy needs if we're going to have
um an infrastructure of stadiums for those who are interested in sports you know if we're going
to have an infrastructure of four or five stadiums if we don't have enough energy to do that what are
we going to do if we're going to look at applications of nuclear science at the medical field
where we'll bring all this big um diagnostic machines in hospitals yeah we're gonna have we
we're gonna have reliable energy to uh to power these instruments is for nothing um you can go look
at agriculture if you know applications of nuclear science in agriculture to address hunger um all of the
instruments and machines that are used um to do all the research of of of these applications in that industry
means energy from somewhere so until we're able to address the energy needs for a continent we'll continue
to struggle wow wow wow this is super super super informative i'm a k and i'm very much
enthralled by the way you have explained very pressing and mind boggling issues regarding the
continent and our energy needs so this brings me to the last question a k uh what do you think
we need and what do you have as a final kind of what i think this should not be the final because
yeah you you you've been with the african community and i believe we'll still have more time
with you in the future so can you give some last words that you want to give to our audience and
maybe some thing you want them to have um uppermost in their mind what you think yeah you want to say
in that regard um well first of all i would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity
give me this opportunity to speak with the audience wherever they are on on the face of this earth
we've gone through a lot of challenges through this covid so i hope and pray those who have lost
loved ones um you know we are pray that god will continue to uh amen to uh to uh to continue to you know
um um solve their sorrow that they have and um and for some of us who have had economic issues
i hope that god you know god will take control wow so when it comes to the ideas what you know what
message i would leave for uh because i believe most of the ideas here is from africa is you know let's
let's find a way to work together um and it's simple to say but i believe 100 percent that if we
work together uh we can accomplish a lot of things whether you are in the water you as an african in
the diaspora yeah or you're an african living in the continent um if we embrace the idea of working
together and i know it can be very difficult uh for us to also come together and and work and work on
things but i do honestly do believe that if we find ways to be patient and that is the biggest takeaway
from from from my advice to everybody listening is the capacity to be patient for one another to get at
each and achieve more teamwork yeah right if we take that capacity to be patient with one another
and we can empower each other in so many ways yeah that you want to that you can't even imagine
and whatever we do we'll be able to succeed together and if we succeed together it's sustainable
yeah um and it's sustainable you know everybody in the continent will be able to
enjoy the the fruits of our labor but we have to understand um that whatever it is that we choose to do
yeah and in this case in our in our industry you and i we're in the nuclear science and technology
and for everybody else that's hoping to get into the into the industry our advice because i love the
industry our advice take take take that leap but uh i say in whatever profession that you are in
use that profession for good yeah for the continent for yourself for your family and for the continent
but understanding the bigger price here is not individual the bigger price here is community
community empowerment yeah community empowerment community empowerment community
empowerment and teamwork if we do that anything is possible wow thank you so so much ak it's been
a very intriguing and informative session with you i sincerely appreciate the time and i hope
that your baby keeps you active um for the rest of the day i see he's doing a very great job doing
that already yeah no problem no problem uh and same to you i wish i wish your family the best
the best of times and um i mean we talk all the time anyway every now and then we do communicate
but i hope to see the the the the the the young generation generation generation in Ghana so but
before we go i just want to mention this before we go um for the audience that's listening in
wherever you are africa young generation in nuclear will be having their second their third
um by annual summit in Ghana in Ghana uh october 25 through to 29 yeah well we we already have a lot
of good things waiting for our audience our attendees um the organizing committee has been
gearing um to do a lot of things they continue continuously continuously um been doing a great
work the Ghana young generation who's going to be hosting us i've been doing an amazing work i've
been working with them you know so we're looking forward for something great so if you live in the
continent you live in the diaspora please you can contact myself at akbarre 000 at gmail.com
or you can go to linkedin you just type abduldash k a r i m b a r r i e we can link up there
yes and and i would uh and i will give you all the information that's needed how you can
participate we can be a sponsor of the conference itself uh so we're looking for all when we talk
about teamwork this is what i'm talking about teamwork so everybody we want all of you guys to be
part of part of what we find the links to um all these in the description of the podcast yeah awesome awesome