Kenya is on track to start construction on its first nuclear power station by 2027 with electricity generation to begin by 2034, officials from the Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA) said at a parliamentary hearing.

NuPEA’s director of strategy and planning, Winnie Ndubai, told the Senate energy committee that the search for a suitable site had been narrowed to two coastal locations, while progress was continuing on building a nuclear regulatory framework.

Press reports in Kenya said the plant, potentially a single unit of about 1,000 MW, is to be built on the Indian Ocean coast in the east of the country.