Nigeria’s drive to develop electricity from nuclear sources would be managed substantially by local professionals, the Federal Government said on Tuesday.
Speaking in an interview with our correspondent on the sidelines of the review workshop/expert mission on the National Nuclear Power Programme by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Director General, Nigeria Atomic Energy Agency, Dr. Erapamo Osaisai, explained that government was committed to making it a Nigerian programme.
Responding to our correspondent’s question on why the time outlay stretched to about 12 years, whereas South Korea had offered to help any willing country build nuclear power plants in 47 months, Osaisai insisted that the time depended on the industrial base of the country, capital and the quality of human resources.
According to him, “It may take a shorter time, but in our case, we want to ensure that we have a reasonable control of the programme in such a way that you do not have people come and do things, which you are not prepared to handle.
“We must have that capacity and it has to be a Nigerian programme. Hence, it will require more than the time than it will take in developed environments.”
The DG stressed that building a nuclear power plant was a complex project, which must be developed in conformity with international standards and norms, saying that Nigeria wanted to develop it right even if it took a longer time than people would expect.
In her welcome address, the Minister of Science and Technology, Mrs. Grace Ekpiwhre, assured that government would ensure the provision of resources needed to create technological, economic and social conditions that would support the establishment of sustainable national nuclear power infrastructure.
According to her, “The Federal Government is fully aware that the development of an appropriate infrastructure to sustain the introduction of nuclear power should be painstakingly developed, exercising the necessary caution.
“This entails meticulous planning and adoption of an implementation schedule that must be deliberate in pace and that allows for due consultations and appropriate review, when necessary.”
Ekpiwhre noted that government had on February 2007 adopted the strategic plan for the implementation of the technical framework for the deployment of nuclear power plants in Nigeria .
She added, “The strategy is such that the Technical Framework will be implemented in three phases, which may run concurrently. The first phase is the manpower and infrastructure development; the second phase is the design certification, regulatory and licensing approvals; while the third phase comprises the construction regime and start-up.
“In our modest expectations, we intend to satisfactorily execute these plans within a period of 10 to 12 years.
“The first phase of the action plan entails the strengthening of the national human resource base and the emplacement of the necessary infrastructure, which expectedly, will provide the fulcrum for a sustained capacity building to meet the long-term needs of our nuclear power programme.”
She said the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission, which is the designated National Nuclear Energy Programme Implementing Organisation, had generated detailed analysis and quantification of manpower requirements for the implementation of the national nuclear power programme.
She noted that some aspects of the infrastructural development phase had been executed, while the maintenance and updating of the facilities in the national nuclear research centres, as well as the emplacement of new facilities as outlined in the technical framework, were being pursued vigorously.
In his speech, Dr. Vincent Nkong-Njock, who represented the Director General, IAEA, advised Nigerian officials to accept the outcome of the review team if it was unsavory.
He explained that the development of nuclear power was a way to enhance the security and diversity of the country’s energy supplies.
Njock said, “Diversifying a country’s suppliers and sources of energy is an essential buffer against fluctuations in the market prices of fossil fuels.
“Economically, nuclear energy gas is an advantage in this respect as uranium costs make up only 5-15 per cent of the costs of nuclear-generated electricity, and given the relatively large number of uranium producers, ensuring a reliable supply of nuclear reactor fuel is generally not a problem.
“Another factor driving the interest in nuclear power is that it emits almost no green house gases. With about one to six grams of carbon equivalent per kilo watt hour, the complete nuclear power chain-from mining the uranium and manufacturing the fuel to construction and operating the reactor and disposing the waste, is about the same negligible emission rate as wind and hydropower and many times less than coal, oil and natural gas.”