In a damp office at Addis Ababa University, doctoral student Hailu Geremew fantasizes about working on the nuclear reactor his country is now pondering building.

¡°Oh that is my dream, my dream, my dream,¡± said the nuclear physicist, 32.

Geremew is part of a new generation of African scientists whose prospects are expanding as their governments team up with foreign powers on a potential fast-track to electrification.