[size=14pt]Nigeria, Russia partner on nuclear project[/size]

From Oghogho Obayuwana, Abuja


Govt assures foreign missions of security

NIGERIA and Russia will this week hold talks on the use of nuclear technology for power generation as well as assistance for peacekeeping operations.




Nigeria, Russia partner on nuclear project



http://odili.net/news/source/2010/nov/15/25.html

Both countries will also be reviewing and making projections for collaboration on pressing international issues that affect their regions as well as a strategic partnership that can take the current economic cooperation between Russia and Nigeria to a higher level.


Also, the government and people of foreign missions accredited to Nigeria have nothing to fear as all efforts are being made to address the security challenges that the country currently faces, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Odein Ajumogobia (SAN).

The minister said that all the country's nationals were safe while their business interests remained under the protection of the highest authority in the land.


He said that the country's stability was being enhanced by the security, structural and economic reforms now being embarked upon by President Goodluck Jonathan.


Ajumogobia spoke in Abuja while briefing the members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Nigeria.


Nigerian and Russian relations are to be boosted as the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov comes to Nigeria tomorrow for a three-day engagement.


Russia and Nigeria are marking the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations on the 25th of this month. Briefing foreign affairs correspondents in Abuja at the weekend on the mission of his foreign minister to Nigeria, the Russian Ambassador to Nigeria Alexander Polyakov said both sides were meeting to give a "new political impetus" to the process initiated way back in June 2009 when Dmitry Anatolyevich Madvedev visited Nigeria.


He was the first leader of the Russian federation to visit the country. Apart from meeting with his Nigerian counterpart Ajumogobia and a host of other top Nigerian officials in the energy, health, military and engineering sectors, the Russian delegation is also billed to have an audience with President Jonathan today.


Shedding light on the delegation's mission, Polyakov said: "There are two big issues - the bilateral cooperation and the pressing international situation. It is to advance our strategic relationship but the crucial point is economic co-operation in the field of energy including oil and gas, pipeline and power generation. We are also looking at agricultural co-operation.

There is a huge Russian agricultural machine building being started. There have been exchanges in this regard and your minister of agriculture is to visit Russia before the end of this month."


He also spoke on nuclear cooperation: "On nuclear co-operation, it is for peaceful use. Peaceful use of nuclear technology. This will involve the training of Nigerian specialists in this regard. It is about technological transfer. So here, we will have a Russian experimental reactor. That means a possibility supplying assistance or a joint development project."


Fielding questions on the sensitively of the West to the acquisition of nuclear technology, he said: "Yes, the whole global community has concerns about the Iranian programme. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has an eye on that. One year ago, the international framework agreement was signed with Nigeria. It is yet to be ratified by the Nigerian National Assembly. But we are working with your National Commission of Atomic Agency so an experimental nuclear plant is being built around Abuja. Now, such a research centre is very useful for any country that wants to develop peaceful purpose nuclear capability.

It is the right of nations to do this and no one can begrudge any country of trying to boost its energy level and to have more stable electricity."


As part of the Russian international cooperation now opening up, Polyakov said: "On the global international agenda, there is a possibility of rendering Russian technical assistance for beefing up peacekeeping operations.


"Nigeria is a leading regional power that has made good contributions to peacekeeping effort. Russia wants to support these efforts, Nigeria and Russia have no political clashes. Nigeria supports all the Russian draft in the UN resolutions and we have a general cooperation on the UN agenda. From the days of the civil war when Russia supported your government, we supported statehood and integration. In continuation of our assistance, we have educational training and scholarship. This year, 65 Nigerians will obtain scholarship. There should be fruitful negotiations in tune with the minister's worldwide tours, "


Remarking that no country had conquered or could overcome all its security challenges, the minister said a holistic approach to all the criminal dimensions ranging from sabotage, kidnapping to violent flare-ups were being tackled by the Nigerian government without making the strategy visible.


He said: "Our government is not focusing on the security in the Niger Delta alone. We are also dealing with the sporadic outbreak of violence and criminal impunity in other parts of the country. Government is resolutely committed to addressing the root cause of the socio-economic challenges that have occasionally boiled over into social conflagrations that often have ethno-religious dimensions and the consequent security challenges. But with the

current measures being taken, Nigeria is secure."


The minister declared further: "At the root of these problems is poverty and the perceptions of neglect. These are enormous challenges by themselves as evidenced by global concerns recently expressed at the United Nations over the prospects of developing countries meeting the MDG (Millennium Development Goals) targets by 2015, but I believe that government's efforts so far are commendable, so the broader security strategy is to address the challenges of underdevelopment as a way of tackling some of the drivers of insecurity in our country,

this is a bad development.

my people, pls hear me out

1) i am scared for nigeria. if there is any war or militancy, the first place our naive brothers would attack would be the power plant, thus causing a meltdown.

2) are we going to be able to maintain it with the level of corruption?

3) where are we going to store the radioactive waste?

these are my reasons and opinions.

This is foolishness! Simple roads, hospital, education, security, economy and employment - they will not provide.

All they are interested in collecting $$$Billion to their pocket from the Russians just for them to come and be dumping their nuclear waste on experiments on our soil. Partners their anus.

A couple of nuclear plants will solve all our energy problems within the next decade. Go GEJ! You is di man!

Doesn't nuclear power take forever to get up and running? We can generate enough hydro-electrical electricity (correct me if I'm wrong.) I'm not sure of the need for nuclear power.

DapoBear:

Doesn't nuclear power take forever to get up and running? We can generate enough hydro-electrical electricity (correct me if I'm wrong.) I'm not sure of the need for nuclear power.

gbam!. moreover, its too dangerous in a country like nigeria where a militant group can just blow it up with knowing the consequences

jason12345:

gbam!. moreover, its too dangerous in a country like nigeria where a militant group can just blow it up with knowing the consequences

Hrm, I think the safey features of these nuclear generators are pretty good. It wouldn't be that easy for terrorists to cause massive disaster; there are a lot of safeguards associated that would prevent things from escalating out of control.

The problem I have with this is that the Nigerian gov't always wants to put the cart before the horse. Send a satellite into space, but not have good roads or power supply. Majoring in minor, as my dad would say 

DapoBear:

Doesn't nuclear power take forever to get up and running? We can generate enough hydro-electrical electricity (correct me if I'm wrong.) I'm not sure of the need for nuclear power.

It should be all set up nicely in a decade or thereabouts if we start now.

There are also some mini nuclear plants we can basically buy off the shelf, but those are American. They'll cost just £13million, produce 25 - 70 Megawatts and are buried underground in concrete for safety. Each Nigerian city can run on a couple of those; in fact, just 120 (at 25 Megawatts) or 40 (at 70 Megawatts) of them will match our current power output.

Its the way to go I'll say. Others have done it without incident, and so can we.

Beaf:

It should be all set up nicely in a decade or thereabouts if we start now.

There are also some mini nuclear plants we can basically buy off the shelf, but those are American. They'll cost just £13million, produce 25 - 70 Megawatts and are buried underground in concrete for safety. Each Nigerian city can run on a couple of those; in fact, just 120 (at 25 Megawatts) or 40 (at 70 Megawatts) of them will match our current power output.

Its the way to go I'll say. Others have done it without incident, and so can we.

I'd like Ekiti to do this. I wonder what the electricity consumption of my state is. Constant power supply would give us a huge economic advantage. Can you provide a link or more background info to these off the shelf reactors? Name of the company, technology used, etc?

It is worth taking out a loan to buy that, I think. . .

DapoBear:

I'd like Ekiti to do this. I wonder what the electricity consumption of my state is. Constant power supply would give us a huge economic advantage. Can you provide a link or more background info to these off the shelf reactors? Name of the company, technology used, etc?

It is worth taking out a loan to buy that, I think. . .

Here goes:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/09/miniature-nuclear-reactors-los-alamos
http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news5.28.08c.html
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/36758
**** http://www.hyperionpowergeneration.com/ ****

^-- Pretty nice technology. Thanks for the links.

jason 12345 said:

gbam!. moreover, its too dangerous in a country like nigeria where a militant group can just blow it up with knowing the consequences

On the contrary it is you who needs to know what is what.

Too many here read the word 'nuclear', and instantly imagine a nuclear bomb going off ''by mistake''.

Please go read and up on nuclear-powered electricity and quit embarrasing yourself here. 

And NO, it is not ''unsafe'' to run the facility in Nigeria. Most here don't even know we already have at least two functioning nuclear reactors in Nigeria today. If countries like Croatia (pop. 4 million) that went therouhj genocide and are sufferiung from chronic corruption and organised crime, can have a nmuclear plant, what is Nigeria doing lookingt for excuses?

India is a world class nuclear power, and a serious player in space exploration.

But you have power outages in India till tomorrow. You have slums there, as well as 500 millon illiterates!


They did not say ''let's wait till we provide all essential services before we do anything else'', and today they're reaping the benefits! Their economy is racing forward at nearly 10% annual growth rate!

Obama just returned from begging them!

So please, let us think twice before opening our mouths gboa gboa to criticise things we don't understand!

^-- I don't have a problem with nuclear energy personally. I just think that we could generate enough electricity through more conventional means.

Also, disposal of nuclear waste is still an issue to be considered.

Finally, I thought the reactors in Nigeria were for research only, not power generation, right?

DapoBear:

^-- I don't have a problem with nuclear energy personally. I just think that we could generate enough electricity through more conventional means.

Also, disposal of nuclear waste is still an issue to be considered.

Finally, I thought the reactors in Nigeria were for research only, not power generation, right?

It gets even more interesting! Bill Gates and Toshiba are partnering to produce a new kind of micro nuclear plant that can run on nuclear waste from regular reactors for 30 years!
Damn! We just need to hook into the unfolding strategies around the World.
With a little planning, Nigeria can pull some serious tricks! We could build your regular bog standard reactors and have them feed the Bill Gates - Toshiba ones after a number of years!

[size=14pt]Toshiba and Bill Gates Plot Mini Nuclear Reactors[/size]
By: Nick Mokey  •March 23, 20100



Talks between the former Microsoft CEO and the Japanese tech titan may yield mini reactors that could power the the U.S. on existing nuclear waste for two centuries.

Convinced the future of green energy lies in wind, solar or ethanol? Bill Gates has a different idea: Revisiting the nuclear reactor. Hopefully, he can get one to crash less than Windows.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Gates and Toshiba are coordinating to develop small-scale nuclear reactors through TerraPower, a company run by former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold and partially run on funding from Gates.

Gates specifically backs a new a new type of reactor known as a traveling wave reactor (TWR). As he explained in a February keynote at TED, a TWR could actually use the depleted uranium currently being produced as a waste product of existing nuclear reactors. According to Gates, just the existing waste currently squirreled away in hazardous waste sites could power the U.S. for two centuries. Each reactor would potentially produce between a few hundred watts and a gigawatt of energy – enough to power a small city.

Toshiba has been working independently toward a similar goal: a small-scale nuclear reactor that can run for 30 years continuously. So far, Gates and Toshiba haven’t announced any official collaboration, but are in talks that could lead to joint investment and development.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/green-technology/toshiba-and-bill-gates-plot-mini-nuclear-reactors/

^-- That is pretty love-vendor, lol. No need for Yucca Mountain, perhaps. . .