By Maxwell Akalaare Adombila

ACCRA, May 21 (Reuters) - Ghana will select by December

a company to build its first nuclear power plant from contenders

including France's EDF, U.S.-based NuScale Power ( SMR ) and Regnum

Technology Group, and China National Nuclear Corporation, an

energy ministry official said.

South Korea's Kepco and its subsidiary Korea Hydro Nuclear

Power Corporation as well as Russia's ROSATOM were also

competing for the contract expected to span the next decade,

said Robert Sogbadji, deputy director for power in charge of

nuclear and alternative energy.

"Cabinet will approve the final choice. It can be one vendor

or two nations; it will depend on the financial model and the

technical details," Sogbadji told Reuters on Monday.

Ghana started considering building a nuclear power plant in

the 1960s but the process was derailed by a coup. It revived the

plan in 2006 with the International Atomic Energy Association's

assistance, following a devastating power crisis that year.

Sogbadji said 16 countries and companies had responded to

the government's request for vendors, but a technical team of

state agencies led by the energy ministry narrowed it down to

the current five nations.

Ghana, like other African countries, is increasingly looking

to the possibility of nuclear power to close supply gaps in a

continent where over 600 million people lack access to

electricity.

Burkina Faso and Uganda have both signed agreements with

Russia and China to construct their first nuclear power plants.

Kenya, Morocco and Namibia are also working to add nuclear to

their energy mix.

South Africa, which operates the continent's only nuclear

plant, is looking to add 2,500 megawatts (MW) of power from the

resource amid severe power shortages.

Sogbadji said Ghana aims to add about 1,000 megawatt of

power from nuclear to its electricity mix by 2034.

The West African country, which is currently grappling with

power outages, has 5,454 MW of installed capacity, of which

4,483 MW is available, according to its energy regulator.

Ghana - an oil, cocoa and gold exporting nation - expects

nuclear power to become its base load for quicker and broader

industrialisation while increasing energy exports to Benin,

Ivory Coast and Togo, among others, through the West Africa

Power Pool.

Sogbadji said the government has already secured a site with

capacity to accommodate up to five reactors. He added that it

would prefer a "build, own, operate and transfer" arrangement

with room for local equity holding.