Nigeria's Dangerous Nuclear Power Project

The world has again cast its attention on Nigeria and this time with keen interest following reports that she has activated a nuclear electricity programme to underpin her now notoriously unreliable public power supply.

For decades, Nigeria’s epileptic power supply has hindered development.

Buffeted by incoherent energy plan, successive governments have failed to deliver on promises of stable public supply making Nigerians to pay for the inefficiencies.

It is only in Nigeria that public power supply is standby as generating sets litter homes and offices across the country.

And with hopes running out, Nigeria is now toying with the introduction of nuclear power into the country’s energy mix.

Though, the country will have to wait till 2026 for the first nuclear power plant to be constructed by National Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC) to be ready; the idea of a nuclear power programme is wrong and ill advised.

Nuclear energy is the energy stored in the centre or the nucleus of an atom. It is a rare form of energy which must be handled with care.

Though the nuclear power industry has improved the safety and performance of reactors, and has proposed new safer (but generally untested) reactor designs but there is no guarantee that the reactors will be designed, built and operated correctly.

Mistakes do occur and the designers of reactors at Fukushima in Japan did not anticipate that a tsunami generated by an earthquake would disable the backup systems that were supposed to stabilize the reactor after the earthquake.

Nigeria nuclear power project is a bad idea because of the country’s history of emergency preparedness.

For instance, the e waste produced by nuclear reactors needs to be disposed off at a safe place since they are extremely hazardous and can leak radiations if not stored properly.

Such kind of waste emits radiations from tens to hundreds of years.

Also while so many new technologies have been put in place to make sure that such disasters won’t happen again like the ones Chernobyl or more recently Fukushima but the risk associated with nuclear power plants are relatively high.

Another practical disadvantage of using nuclear energy is that it needs a lot of investment to set up a nuclear power station. It is not always possible by the developing countries to afford such a costly source of alternative energy.

Nigeria must be more careful and responsible while using nuclear energy to avoid any sort of major accidents.

They are hot targets for militants and terrorist organizations.

Security is a major concern here. A little lax in security can prove to be lethal and brutal for humans and even for this planet.

Nigeria is not ripe for any nuclear programme.

The country will be ripe when it she begins to develop required competence for strict adherence to safety standards and maintenance culture.

Nuclear power programmes are expensive. The hidden costs of atomic power exposed after the Fukushima disaster in Japan are still fresh.

Today, Germany and Switzerland are gradually phasing out their nuclear power projects on the heels of the nightmare in Japan.

Nigeria pursuing nuclear ambition at this stage of competing needs and dwindling national treasury is absurd.

A nuclear project at this stage amounts to academic exercise and government’s “right” to engage in wasteful spending.