THE GUARDIAN
September 14, 2011
ABUJA
NIGERIA is not looking back in its quest to generate electricity using nuclear technology. To achieve this, it is stepping up its negotiation with Russia for the construction of Nigeria’s nuclear power plant.
Following a visit by a team from Russia last July, both countries are finalising paper works on the project. A final agreement is expected to be signed before the end of the year.
Minister of Science and Technology, Itta Ewa, who spoke on President Goodluck Jonathan’s 100 days in office in Abuja, also disclosed that the draft science, technology and innovation policy approval by the National Council for Science and Technology last May had been re-submitted to the Federal Executive Council for approval.
He said of the nuclear power deal: “In recognition of the dire need to improve the national electricity supply situation, the government looked beyond the traditional sources of electricity generation to include nuclear energy in the generation base.
In order to fast-track the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes for the country, therefore, the government through the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology hosted a seven-man delegation from the Russian State Corporation where views were exchanged between Nigeria and the Russian Federation on Nuclear Energy Development Agreement.
“Follow-up meetings are now being initiated to discuss the modalities for its implementation. A major component of the agreement is the design and implementation of the nuclear power plant.”
IAEA GIVES NIGERIA THUMBS UP
20/01/2005 23:32 – (SA)
Kano –
International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohammed ElBaradei has inspected Nigeria’s first nuclear reactor
and given it a clean bill of health, the
head of the facility said on Thursday.
Ibrahim Umar, director of the nuclear
research project at Ahmadu Bello Univerity in Zaria, said following ElBaradei’s visit on Wednesday that the UN agency had cooperated in the development in the test reactor and was content it met international safety standards.
“The IAEA, being the UN organ responsible for monitoring the application of nuclear technology
throughout the world, has a mandate to
conduct inspections on any nuclear
facility,” Umar told AFP in a telephone interview.
“Since the nuclear research centre was
commissioned with technical cooperation from IAEA, the visit is to see
how we are utilizing the facility which is
exclusively for peaceful application
purposes,” he said
BACKGROUNDER
http://rertr.anl.gov/RERTR27/Abstracts/S10-4_Jonah.html
Oct. 1, 2004
By Greg Webb
Global Security Newswire
WASHINGTON
Nigeria commissioned its first nuclear research reactor yesterday, potentially undermining a U.S.-led push to eliminate the use of highly enriched uranium reactor fuel. Such fuel,either in its fresh or irradiated forms, could be used to manufacture nuclear arms if it was diverted to national weapons programs or stolen by terrorists.
This reactor,however,has been designed for peaceful purposes, officials said, and
Nigeria has constructed the facility under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The U.N. agency will also monitor its operation.
“The reactor will solely be applied for
scientific research which includes soil
mapping to quantify different elements
in the soil to boost agricultural production and to reduce the use of chemical fertilizer as well as for solid minerals identification in Nigeria,” Ibrahim Umar,director of the Ahmadu Bello University Center for Energy Research and Training, said in an interview with Agence France- Presse.
“It will also be used in petroleum exploration and for identifying elements
associated with diseases in the human
body and other human-related research
purposes.”
China supplied the NIRR-1 reactor and its fuel, nearly 1 kilogram of uranium
enriched to contain 90 percent of the
uranium 235 isotope, a weapon-grade
concentration.
The news comes on the heels of an international meeting in Vienna last
month to give momentum to the U.S.-led
Global Threat Reduction Initiative, an
effort to secure highly enriched uranium
from research reactors around the world mostly by returning the material to the
nations that originally supplied it,
primarily the United States and Russia
(see GSN, Sept. 22). In addition, the initiative looks to develop lower-enriched fuels and to convert reactors to use those fuels.
The Nigerian reactor illustrates the
hurdles the initiative faces as China
continues to export reactors, Germany is
constructing a domestic facility, and
Russia considers exporting sea-based
reactors to developing nations (see GSN, Aug. 27). All those facilities would use
highly enriched uranium for fuel.
“The international community has not
embraced the principle of HEU
elimination in a consistent fashion,” said William Potter, director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
The Nigerian development is “very much
at odds with the Global Threat Reduction
Initiative,” he said. While there is not enough highly enriched uranium at the Nigerian site to create a nuclear weapon, some nonproliferation experts expressed concern that terrorists could attack multiple sites to acquire sufficient material.
A well-coordinated terrorist effort
against four or five poorly protected
nuclear facilities could yield enough
material for an atomic weapon, the
Nuclear Threat Initiative’s Laura Holgate
told reporters at last month’s Vienna conference.
Such a multiple attack would not
necessarily need to be done simultaneously to succeed, according to
another expert. Stolen uranium could go
unnoticed, due to poor security and
accounting measures, or corrupted officials could fail to report the theft, said Matthew Bunn, a proliferation specialist at Harvard University.
Consolidating weapon-usable materials
at secure storage sites would reduce the
risk of theft, said Bunn, who criticized
China’s decision to supply the Nigerian
reactor. “It is always a bad thing to spread highly enriched uranium to sites where it does not need to be,” Bunn said. “Particularly sites that are unlikely to be able to be guarded to the standards such material requires.”
http://nti.org/gsn/article/nigeria-commissions-research-reactor-heu-fueled-facility-goes-against-us-led-nonproliferation-effort/
http://cerd.gov.ng/about.htm
The GENESIS (1977)
http://cerd.gov.ng/about.htm
NIGERIAN GOV’T INAUGURATES TENTATIVE NUCLEAR ACCELERATOR
LAGOS, Sept. 23 2008
(Xinhua)
Nigerian government inaugurated an tentative 1.7 MV Tandem Nuclear Accelerator at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife after 25 years of preparation, according to the official News Agency of Nigeria reports on Tuesday.
A statement issued by Chief Press
Secretary to the minister, Abdulganiyu
Aminu, said Grace Ekpiwhre, Nigeria’s
Minister of Science and Technology,
inaugurated the project at the weekend.
The statement quoted the minister as
saying that the accelerator would enable Nigeria enhance application of nuclear science and technology. It said the facility would be used for basic and applied research in food and agriculture, environmental studies, industry, material science and training.
“There cannot be sustained socio-
economic development without a solid
industrial base founded on science and
technology.”The inauguration is auspicious given the Federal Government’s resolve to generate electricity from nuclear power plant,” the minister said. She appealed to science and technology stakeholders to make good use of the facility to justify government’s investment in the project.
The statement also quoted Erepamo
Sai, the Director-General of the Nigeria
Atomic Energy Commission as saying that the facility should be used for
professional accomplishments.
This inauguration comes a month after
Iran agreed to share its nuclear
technology with Nigeria after a bilateral
meeting held in later August in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. Nigerian officials said the agreement between the two countries on the nuclear technology was not intended for any military use.
Nigeria ranks Africa’s top oil producer
with a daily crude output of 2 million
barrels. But it suffers from serious power
supply shortage throughout the nation
due to aged power generating and
transmitting faciliites and lack of investment on industrial upgrade.
Is there a reason why strategic national projects go the the Russo-Chinese orbit? Satellites – Russia and China; nuclear research reactor+accelerator – China, nuclear power plant – Russia?
Food for thought for our friends in the West. Perhaps too much paternalism and sanctimony fray nerves.
When NigComSat was launched into before it was later de-orbited,one stupid US security & defence analyst complained bitterly on VOA News that China is transfering sensitive satellite technology to Nigeria!can you imagine that kind of hate comment,i immediately developed resentment on any form of assistance to our country coming from the US government.
The bi-national comission we have with the US is only meant to benefit them only,please some body should cross-check our relationship with some of these so-called BULLSHIT strategic-partners from the west,they tend to turn their back on us whenever we are having serious security or defence challenge.
The worst part of it all is that our present leaders are not thinking strategically at all,God help Nigeria!
China sold the miniature neutron source reactor to: pakistan,iran,syria,ghana and nigeria.why was only nigeria picked on ,or are we the bad boys of africa.