Nuclear power: FG chooses four sites in the North, three in South

By Obinna Ezeobi


Four sites in the northern part of the country and three in the south have been selected tentatively as locations for the nuclear power stations through which the Federal Government hopes to generate electricity.

Speaking at the end of the review workshop/expert mission on the Nigerian National Nuclear Power Programme by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Director-General, Nigeria Atomic Energy Agency, Dr. Erepamo Osaisai, explained that the sites were currently undergoing evaluation and characterisation, adding that there was the need to do further work.

Although he refused to disclose the particular towns where the nuclear facilities would be sited, Osaisai admitted that a lot of technical work needed to be done, adding that the legal framework had been developed and improved upon.

Meanwhile, a senior official of IAEA, Mr. Ian Facer, who participated in the workshop, noted that building a nuclear power programme required a three-phase approach, saying that Nigeria was in the first phase and had satisfied many of the standards for the stage.

He, however, stressed that there were some issues, which needed to be straightened out, particularly the need for efficient collaboration between relevant agencies, particularly NAEC and the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Agency.

This, he said, was necessary to achieve synergy in action plans and synchronise the timing of the various activities.

He also charged Nigeria to step up communication with the public and other stakeholders in order to communicate the benefits of the project as well as the concomitant risks.

He assured that IAEA would help Nigeria in its quest for electricity generation through nuclear sources, noting however, that the bulk of work would be done in Nigeria by Nigerians.

A copy of the communiqué issued at the end of the workshop noted, that "implementation of a nuclear power programme is an enormous responsibility, which requires high level of coordination with all relevant stakeholders working in tandem to achieve set national objectives. NAEC should strengthen the national coordination and implementation of the nuclear power programme by constituting a more wholesome and operational working group, involving all stakeholders at the senior management level.

"Active participation of all stakeholders in the programme implementation is the key to the success of the programme."

The participants also charged NAEC to encourage the participation of Nigerian professionals, including those in the diaspora in the project, and if possible create appropriate institutional linkages for their effective involvement in the implementation of the nuclear energy programme.

Osaisai assured that the observed lapses in collaboration between agencies were being addressed so as to ensure that Nigeria achieved the objective of generating electricity through nuclear sources.

He said, "You cannot approximate or defer any activity in the nuclear power programme. You must identify and address them. We can address all the issues that have been raised and resolve them in a few months, at most, by the first quarter of 2009 so that we can be on the same page with the IAEA.

The director-general further explained that there were 19 milestones published by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which any country that planned to build nuclear power infrastructure must meet.

According to him, "You need to satisfy them to different degrees at various stages. Nigeria is in the preliminary stage. After the preliminary stage, which is the development of a robust nuclear power programme, you now get on to implement the infrastructure development component, which will enable you to order for a nuclear power plant. You need to have the needed infrastructure in place and the needed manpower. That is what we need to do after the first phase.

"The third phase is where you now engage contractors, vendors and start building the nuclear power plants to generate electricity."


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