IAEA Review Finds Kenya Committed to Safe Radioactive Waste Management Ahead of Nuclear Power

For nine days this October, a team of eight reviewers sat down in Nairobi to examine how Kenya handles the radioactive waste it already has, and how it plans to handle what a nuclear power programme will eventually produce. The mission ran from 11 to 19 October and was the first of its kind ever conducted in Africa. It came at the request of the Kenyan government and was hosted by the Kenya Nuclear Regulatory Authority, known as KNRA.

The mission was an ARTEMIS review, the International Atomic Energy Agency's integrated service for examining programmes on radioactive waste, spent fuel, decommissioning and remediation. The team was made up of four external experts from Lithuania, Morocco, Slovakia and South Africa, along with four IAEA staff. They measured Kenya's national programme against IAEA Safety Standards, technical guidance and good practice seen in other member countries. Funding came primarily from the agency's technical cooperation programme.

Kenya's waste picture today is modest but real. Radioactive sources are used in medical, research and industrial settings, and the waste is managed at the Central Radioactive Waste Processing Facility in Oloolua, Kajiado County. What changes the picture is what is coming. The country is preparing to establish its first nuclear research reactor, meant to serve education, training and research, and it has begun developing a nuclear power programme to meet growing energy demand. Both facilities will require planning for waste, including high-level waste in the form of spent nuclear fuel.

The reviewers held discussions and interviews with Kenyan counterparts on the policy and framework covering disused sealed radioactive sources, as well as the waste and spent fuel envisaged from the power programme. They also drew on an IAEA regulatory review from October 2025, which had included observation of regulatory inspections at the Oloolua facility.

Their conclusion was that Kenya is committed to the sustainable, safe management of its radioactive waste and planned spent fuel, and that it has made considerable progress in recent years. They did not stop at praise. The team recommended that Kenya ensure the independence of its regulatory activities, finalize its national policies on nuclear energy, the fuel cycle and radioactive waste management, and focus on capacity building so that its institutions can deliver on their mandates. They also encouraged the country to draw up a single consolidated action plan that carries out the findings of both this review and the 2025 regulatory mission.

The team leader, Thiagan Pather, who is Designate Executive of Nuclear Technology and Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material at the National Nuclear Regulator of South Africa, said Kenyan counterparts engaged openly and constructively, which allowed productive technical discussions. He said addressing the findings together with those of the 2025 mission would help Kenya improve management of its existing waste and of the waste and spent fuel expected in future.

James Keter Chumba, Director General of KNRA, said the findings, lessons learned and the experience of taking part in an international peer review would help strengthen the country's regulatory infrastructure and capabilities, as well as its waste management programme.

The IAEA will deliver the final ARTEMIS report to Kenyan authorities within three months. The open question is how quickly Kenya turns the recommendations, especially on regulatory independence and finalized national policies, into the single action plan the reviewers asked for.