Nigeria Aims To Construct Its First Nuclear Plant

Nuclear power is the source of the great industrial potential in the modern world. All progressive countries aims at building nuclear plants. And Nigeria should think of it too.

The Nigerian Nuclear Program was founded in 1976 while Nigeria’s civilian nuclear energy aspirations began in 2007, when Umaru Yar’Adua said the country planned to add nuclear power to the national grid by 2017.

Nigeria is one of the most populated countries in Africa but only about 40% of the people are connected to the energy grid. The people who actually have power experience difficulties around 60% of the time.

Nigeria has a research reactor in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The Nigeria Research Reactor-1 (NIRR-1) is used for training purposes and is powered by enriched uranium. NIRR-1, which was built by the Chinese, was commissioned in 2004 during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.

In 2014 Goodluck Jonathan at the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague said that the country will develop a nuclear energy industry.

According to the latest information Nigeria is in talks with Russia’s Rosatom to build as many as four nuclear power plants costing about $80 billion.

Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Franklin Erepamo Osaisai said that a joint coordination committee is in place and negotiations are ongoing for financing and contracting.

Dr. Osaisai announced that Nigeria signed an agreement with Rosatom to cooperate on the design, construction, operation and decommissioning of a facility in 2012. A further three nuclear plants are planned, taking total capacity to 4,800 megawatts by 2035. The first Nigerian plant will be operational in 2025.

The peak electricity output of Africa’s biggest economy is about 3,800 megawatts, with a further 1,500 megawatts unavailable because of gas shortages.

Chief Executive Officer said: “Rosatom will hold a majority, controlling stake in Nigeria’s nuclear facility while the rest will be owned by the country, with roles to be specified in contracts. The government will enter a power-purchasing agreement for the nuclear plant.”

It is very important to correct the impression created by the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), who said Japan has halting plans to restart two nuclear reactors in the west of the country as a result of Nuclear accident that lead to the death of thousands of people.

First of all, the Japanese Court has approved the restart of the two nuclear reactor, this was done on 22nd of April, 2015 in The Kagoshima district court in south-west Japan. It is also important to note that the accident in Fukushima was not primarily a nuclear disaster but primarily a tsunami that had been triggered by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake which caused a cooling system failure at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. No evidence of death has been reported due to the accident at the nuclear power plant.

As of January 2015, 30 countries worldwide are operating 437 nuclear reactors for electricity generation and 71 new nuclear plants are under construction in 15 countries. Nuclear power plants provided 11 percent of the world’s electricity production. In total, 13 countries relied on nuclear energy to supply at least one-quarter of their total electricity.