Nigeria in talks to build nuclear power plant
* Russia's Rosatom started discussion this April
* Nigeria in dire need to ramp up power supply
By Chijioke Ohuocha and Svetlana Burmistrova
LAGOS/MOSCOW, April 14 (Reuters) - Nigeria is in
talks with Russia's state-owned Rosatom to build
nuclear power plants, as Africa's most populous
nation tries to end of decades of blackouts that has
blighted its economy.
Africa's biggest economy has no experience in
developing and operating nuclear power plants but
has a gamma facility and small reactors producing
around 30 kilowatts for research, Franklin Erepamo
Osaisai, chief executive of the Nigeria Atomic
Energy Commission said on its website, adding that
nuclear power will guarantee long-term energy
supply.
"We have an intergovernmental agreement with
Nigeria, but no concrete decisions have been
made," a Rosatom spokesman said.
One nuclear power plant costs between $5 billion to
$8 billion, a source at the company said.
80 percent of Nigeria's power plants are gas-fired.
Rosatom has a contract to build a new plant in
Hungary and has agreed to build reactors in India
and Kazakhstan. It is also planning to build more
reactors in Iran in addition to the Russia-built
Bushehr plant, Iran's first nuclear facility, launched
there in 2011.
Rosatom's investment programme, sourced from
the state budget, allows it to spend about $300 - $
350 billion per year to build nuclear plants in
Russia and abroad, a business that has been hit by
global safety concerns after the 2011 Fukushima
nuclear disaster.
Nigeria, with a population of around 170 million,
has installed power capacity that fluctuates
between around 6,000 to just over 7,000 MW,
according to the transmission company.
South Africa's capacity is almost seven times
greater for a population less than a third as big.
Nigeria broke up its monopoly on power generation
and distribution by privatising the sector two-years
ago, hoping to attract foreign investors. But the
amount of power produced has stagnated at around
half total capacity.
Some of the older plants, sold in October 2013, are
in dire need of an upgrade while the fledgling
generating firms lacking the cash as distributors
struggle with non-paying consumers and
inadequate gas supplies required to keep the plants
running. (Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin
in Moscow, editing by Tim Cocks and William
Hardy)
http://af.reuters.com/article/nigeriaNews/idAFL5N0XB3S820150414?sp=true

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