Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 25, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
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Niger plans to build two nuclear reactors with Russia's Rosatom, aiming to enhance uranium development under UN oversight.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Niger wants to build two 2,000-megawatt nuclear reactors in partnership with Russia's state-owned nuclear corporation Rosatom, its mining minister Ousmane Abarchi said on Thursday.
Abarchi said Niger was also proposing to cooperate with Russia in developing uranium reserves in the west African country.
"Please, let's develop our uranium deposits together," he told a nuclear forum in Moscow, speaking via a translator.
Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev described the proposals as "extremely interesting".
Niger is among a group of African countries with which Russia is cultivating close ties, including in the area of security.
According to the World Nuclear Association, Niger was the eighth largest producer of mined uranium in 2024.
Abarchi said the proposed nuclear plants would be developed under the supervision of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"Yes, we have big ambitions, but this is very important for us. This is very important for the entire African continent," he said.
South Africa is the only country in Africa with an operational nuclear power plant, but reactors are under construction in Egypt.
Several other countries have put forward proposals to build nuclear power stations, including Ghana, Algeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda and Sudan.
(Reporting by Anastasia Lyurchikova and Dmitry Antonov in Moscow; writing by Mark Trevelyan, editing by Ed Osmond)
A nuclear reactor is a device that initiates and controls a sustained nuclear chain reaction, typically used for generating electricity or for research purposes.
Uranium is a heavy metal that is used as fuel in nuclear reactors and is a key component in the production of nuclear energy.
The IAEA is an international organization that promotes the peaceful use of nuclear energy and aims to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Nuclear energy is the energy released during nuclear fission or fusion, which can be harnessed for electricity generation and other applications.
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