Nigeria has started taking gradual, but careful steps towards producing its first Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) estimated to produce 1000 Megawatts of electricity (Mw) in the next ten years, Minister of State for Science and Technology, Dr. Alhassan Bako Zaku was told last week.
The Director-General (DG) of the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC), Dr. Franklin Ereamo Osasai who revealed this to the minister in Abuja when the minister paid him a working visit, said that meticulous and painstaking steps based on international standards, treaties and conventions to establish the nuclear power plant, which he said will blast to life by 2018 have been mapped out.
He affirmed that Nigeria is fully committed to the treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapon and the treaty of Pelinda on the African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone.
“The Key objective of activating the NAEC in line with Act 46 of 1976”, he said, “was to provide the requisite institutional framework and technical pathway to explore, exploit and harness atomic energy for peaceful application in all its ramifications for the socio-economic development of Nigeria.
According to Osasai, who was elected into the board of the Governing Board of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to fill one of the two vacancies reserved for Africa last year, said that the two basic steps to realising this goal have been taken.
The two steps, according to him, are manpower development, and the choosing of appropriate site(s) for the construction of the first nuclear thermal power plant.
He revealed that NAEC already has collaboration with eight select Nigerian universities and two polytechnics for the training of Nigerian Nuclear engineers. He added that there are several other collaborations with international agencies for the training of Nigerians who are expected to largely run the nuclear plant.
According to the D-G, choosing a site for nuclear power plant is a Herculean task. He said that he has constituted a body of experts within and outside Nigeria to carry out the job. Their mandate, according to him, is to “carry out technical studies to characterise the geology, seismic, soil properties, hydrology, meteorological parameters as well as nearness to the electricity grid,” among others.
On his part, the minister said that establishing the NAEC is a wise idea. He said that government is willing to commit its scarce resources into NAEC project as long as the Commission is committed and focused to meeting its target.