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‘Why Nigeria doesn’t have nuclear power plant’

By Clement Nwoji, Abuja
20 February 2017   |   4:19 am
The Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) has advanced reasons why the nation is yet to develop its Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) despite the current epileptic electricity supply.

PHOTO: en.wikipedia.org

The Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) has advanced reasons why the nation is yet to develop its Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) despite the current epileptic electricity supply.

The major reasons are lack of commitment, political will and insufficient funding of the programme by successive administrations. These were disclosed at a ‘nuclear safety and radiological protection’ workshop in Abuja, organised by the NNRA.

In his presentation, the Director of Nuclear Safety, Physical Security and Safeguards, Dr. Nasiru Bello, said that currently, the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC), responsible for building the nation’s NPP, has not presented any application to cite any NPP in the country.

This was despite the fact that the NAEC has indicated that it hopes that Nigeria would have its first NPP in 2025.

He also said that for now, no model of any NPP that is suitable for the country has been chosen, adding that it would be better for the country to choose one that experts will understudy its construction and maintenance for sustenance once it is built.

“We must have a model that will suit Nigeria to develop its own NPP so that in the course of that, the technology will be transferred to Nigerians. So that there won’t be a situation when there is a problem after building it, we begin to run back to the foreign experts”, he stated.

Also, the Director of Radiological Safety, Professor Timothy Akpa, underscored the essence of having NPP saying that it has a long life span of up to 60 years, which guarantees a better future.

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