[size=14pt]Nuclear-powered electricity a major priority in Jonathan’s administration – Envoy[/size]
On November 3, 2011 · In News 

United Nations  Nigeria’s Deputy Envoy at the UN, Bukun-Olu Onemola, said on Wednesday that the introduction of nuclear-powered electricity remained a major priority of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

Onemola told a meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York that the introduction of nuclear-powered electricity in the country’s energy mix was high on the government 5th transformation agenda.

“ We are working closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) towards the realisation of this objective while honouring the attendant obligations to ensure safety and security.

“This is why for us in Nigeria, transparency in the handling of information coming out of the Fukushima Daiichi accident and the lessons learnt from the incident is important, as they will help us to avoid dangerous pitfalls.’’

The Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March resulted to series of equipment failure, nuclear meltdowns and release of radioactive materials at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, following Tohoku earthquake and Tsunami on March 11, 2011.

According to him, in spite of apprehensions following the Fukushima accident, Nigeria remains convinced that nuclear technology, if safely and responsibly applied, can facilitate the attainment of the country’s development goals and those of other Millennium Development Goals.

He added that safe and responsible application of nuclear technology would have a vital role to play in servicing immediate human needs.

Onemola expressed satisfaction with the phenomenal achievement of the IAEA in the application of nuclear technology in the area of food and agriculture, particularly its collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Oragnisation and the World Organisation for Animal Health.

The envoy encouraged IAEA to continue in its efforts to assist nuclear-rich states in applying nuclear technology in the diagnosis and control of other trans-boundary animal diseases and ultimately promote food security.

He added that the focus on the application of nuclear techniques to the prospecting and management of water at the assembly meeting was timely, because it addressed current needs of humanity in both developed and developing countries.

IAEA’s Director-General, Yukiya Amano, had noted that since the Fukushima accident, which occurred in the wake of the earthquake and Tsunami that struck Japan, the international community had mobilised to assess and apply lessons learned.

The action plan included agreement for a “stress test’’ of nuclear power plants in all countries with active nuclear programmes. (NAN)

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/11/nuclear-powered-electricity-a-major-priority-in-jonathan%E2%80%99s-administration-envoy/

Good idea , good intention

Problem, maintainance issue.

@ Beaf,

Do you not think Nigeria should look for alternative ways instead of NPE

I mean build more dams and co. I do not want chernobyl disaster to happen in Nigeria

I hope you see my point

The Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March resulted to series of equipment failure, nuclear meltdowns and release of radioactive materials at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, following Tohoku earthquake and Tsunami on March 11, 2011.

According to him, in spite of apprehensions following the Fukushima accident, Nigeria remains convinced that nuclear technology, if safely and responsibly applied, can facilitate the attainment of the country’s development goals and those of other Millennium Development Goals.

He added that safe and responsible application of nuclear technology would have a vital role to play in servicing immediate human needs.

Hmmm we also have human disaster in Nigeria. I hope it works

alj_harem
Thanks for referring to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Latest news is that it would take 30 years to retire the reactor. By that I know they meant "in a responsible way", like all first world countries do.
Now, imagine Nigeria trying to handle similar problem. Someone would simply handle it in a "fire brigade" way, thereby basically sweeping the mess under carpet until a bigger evil day shows up.

Onlytruth:

alj_harem
Thanks for referring to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Latest news is that it would take 30 years to retire the reactor. By that I know they meant "in a responsible way", like all first world countries do.
Now, i[b]magine Nigeria trying to handle similar problem. Someone would simply handle it in a "fire brigade" way, thereby basically sweeping the mess under carpet until a bigger evil day shows up. [/b]

actually the post of Fukushima was in the article.

Yes I support all you just put down, you get the point here. The funny thing and worse still is after GEJ ( assuming his admin manage's it well) The next might just be a complete mad man like the former Aviation minister.#

There's a growing political trend to close them



Belgium aims to phase out nuclear power by 2025

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15500989,00.html



Germany plans to shutter its reactors, which provide 28 percent of its power, by 2022.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/nuclear/belgium-joins-countries-opting-out-of-nuclear-power

The biggest problem that is posed is always how to ged rid of the nuclear waste, which is always toxic and cannot be safely disposed of.

^-- You could always pay someone else to dispose of it for you, I suppose. The Americans store their waste in Yucca mountain. . . I guess France and Russia have some equivalent of this.

But with that said, this is a bad idea

If I were to be lumbered with solving Nigeria's developmental problems, my thinking would go like below:

The countries that are closing their nuclear plants have already climbed into the rich circle; they can afford to relinquish nuclear power and take up more expensive alternatives, so we need not listen to anyone from there preaching that nuclear is so yesterday.

Nigeria is yet to even begin crawling, instead we have grossly misused and abused the meagre revenue we get from oil. Anyone scouring the Nigerian developmental terrain, will reach a best conclusion that the country is a basket case in urgent need of shock therapy. The question of where to apply that shock therapy then becomes pressing.

To my mind, we can apply it in one or more of following areas:
[list]
[li]Food production[/li]
[li]Education[/li]
[li]Infrastructure[/li]
[li]Trade[/li]
[li]Electric power production[/li]
[/list]

Every item on the list requires electric power in one form or the other for its success, the same goes with education.
Food production is already being worked on, just as the nations focus and foreign policy driver is being swung trade; so those areas are getting the required attention, and we only need to wait about a year to award marks.
The massive provision of infrastructure on the other hand, requires massive cash outlays which we just don't have; to compound matters, Nigeria is woefully underdeveloped and has no money generating industries outside of oil to make it easy to recuperate any expenses, in other words, massive spending on infrastructure will only lead to projects that either can't be maintained or can't be completed. . . a forest of white elephant projects.

With every other item, but power ruled out for shock therapy, the power sector stands alone. Any shock investment in the area will yield pleasantly shocking returns, we will be certain to receive several magnitudes of the investment per kilowatt. A multiplier effect that would quickly yield the revenue to fix the other ailing sectors.

Having isolated the power sector for shock therapy, the next project would be to find power generating technologies that offer the biggest slam for our buck. Needless to say, nuclear cannot be beaten.
There is the argument about nuclear being safe, but several less developed countries than Nigeria (even war torn Congo has a dead one), so why can't Nigeria? It isn't just that lesser countries successfully run nuclear reactors, but nuclear reactors also power war going submarines.

What about accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima? Technology has now reached the stage where there are mini-reactors and no requirement for behemoths like Fukushima which basically eliminates the risk. As soon as the super-grid is completed, the FG can simply order mini-reactors and just plug them in to power whole towns. A killer bonus with most of these mini-reactors is that they are absolutely maintenance free, every few years, you ship them back to the factory where they are recharged with more fuel and shipped back. Neat.

Hyperion Power Generation, a Santa Fe, N.M., company, launched a publicity campaign for its "hot-tub"-sized 30-MW hydride reactor, a licensed technology developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory. The 10-ton unit, only 5 feet in diameter, is a sealed module with integrated radiation shielding that would be fueled and refueled every five to seven years at the factory

http://www.powermag.com/nuclear/The-Race-to-Commercialize-Mini-Nuclear-Reactors_1619.html

country with #7 NG reserves on earth has no business bothering with nuclear.

At times I wonder why God decided to even give any of these resources to Nigeria.

A land swimming in natural gas, but instead looking for nuclear power.

Next I will hear of someone starving to death after being trapped in a grocery store

@Beaf
How about the heat, won't that affect things too?

igbo2011:

@Beaf
How about the heat, won't that affect things too?

Its the heat that plugged into turbines to generate electricity. Its usually used to create steam to drive turbines.

Nigeria is 1000 years behind in the technology and maintenance culture required to run and maintain a nuclear power plant. UN doesn't care. All they want is money because they know all the technology, maintenance, and equipment will come from them. Nigeria should not waste their money and endanger lives and property in the name of nuclear. If you can't maintain NEPA, there is no way they can maintain a powerplant.

Germany is setting the pace with solar technology and China is right behind them.


First Solar's German PV plant expansion opens



November 3, 2011 -- Thin film solar cell maker First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq:FSLR) opened its plant expansion in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany today, representing a $200 million investment and doubling First Solar's production capacity in Germany.

First Solar will now be able to output 500MW annually from its Germany facilities. Covering an area of roughly 50,000sq.m., the new plant will manufacture 250MW a year of solar modules. The new plant became fully operational on schedule after one year of construction. First Solar's employment in Frankfurt (Oder) has almost doubled to more than 1,200.

The factory will incorporate clean electricity from its own rooftop solar system. First Solar has also voluntarily established the industry's first comprehensive, prefunded solar module collection and recycling program and operates a recycling facility in Frankfurt (Oder).

The German investment conditions allowed First Solar to expand solar cell production without losing a competitive cost structure, said Burghard von Westerholt, managing director of First Solar Manufacturing GmbH

Germany Trade & Invest provided its free-of-charge investor consulting services to assist First Solar's German market entry. Germany "remains unwavering" in its commitment to solar energy, said Thomas Grigoleit, director of renewable rnergies & resources at Germany Trade & Invest in Berlin. The country has more installed photovoltaics (PV) capacity than any other nation, and PV power has surpassed hydropower in electricity generation there.

Brandenburg Minister President Matthias Platzeck; Katherina Reiche, State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety; and Jürgen Trittin, Chairman of the parliamentary faction of the Greens / Bündnis 90 Party in the German Parliament were among the guests at the opening ceremony.

Germany Trade & Invest is the foreign trade and inward investment promotion agency of the Federal Republic of Germany. Learn more at www.gtai.com/pv/industry-overview.

First Solar makes cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaics. The company has recently reshuffled its leadership, with a CEO and CFO departing. Learn more at www.firstsolar.com/.

Long article the meat and yams of it is that waste disposal sites in the U.S. are leaking into underground drinking water aquifers.

Also mob criminals have been illegally dumping nuclear waste off the coast of East Africa, and Shango knows where else in the world. Links below.



Rick Perry: Best Little LovePeddler in Texas

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8131-rick-perry-best-little-LovePeddler-in-texas


For starters, a group of Perry appointees on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality gave Simmons a license to build his hazardous nuke dump, even after the TCEQ's own team of scientists agreed that the project was too risky, given how dangerously close it lies to the Ogalalla aquifer, which provides drinking water for seven states.

When I visit the site in September, it has just rained in the area for the first time in a year - really - and there is water all over the place. Rod Baltzer, the president of WCS, insists that the wastewater is being contained and disposed of in a safe, orderly fashion. But it's hard not to look beyond the dump to nearby Eunice, New Mexico, visible just a few miles away, and wonder about the wisdom of taking a private company's word that there is no contaminated water running underground to the nearby town. Especially since another of Simmons' companies, NL Industries, has already been caught leaking radioactive waste into an aquifer in Ohio. In a supremely ironic demonstration of how the modern system of payola capitalism works, Simmons is now being paid millions by taxpayers, via the federal Energy Department, to clean up his own mess, moving radioactive waste from his dump in Ohio to the one in Texas.




------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More Illegally Dumped Radioactive Waste Found on Somalia’s Coast

http://ecolocalizer.com/2011/03/27/more-illegally-dumped-radioactive-waste-found-on-somalias-coast/


'Toxic waste' behind Somali piracy
Pirates say $8m ransom is reparation for years of hazardous waste dumping by firms.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2008/10/2008109174223218644.html

Now I know if poverty has failed in annihilating us,Nuclear option may be the easiest way.It is not enough to just import technology,but can we manage it safely? Ordinary and basic Hydro power technology,we find to be herculian,now nuclear.

We have so much oil in Nigeria, Why nuclear energy
The problem is not the risk involved but the irresponsible nature of the Nigerian govt. system. Even if we were to adopt nuclear energy as power source the ineffective govt we have don't have any vision of what to do if disaster arises. they don,t value our lives.

GEJ should locate this nuclear plant in Otuoke Bayelsa

Any one advocating this pie in the sky project does not love this country. I read somewhere in the article by beaffy that the disposal will be transported safely.
that sums it up for me the guy does not live in nigeria. Transport by road a no go, by air will be total dissater, water nko? A no route avenue.
Pls lets face our immediate problems before inviting major hazard on our hands.

Venturing into the perilous world of nuclear power would be the costliest blunder any Nigerian leader could ever commit.   The half-life of nuclear waste is measured in THOUSANDS of years.  Even a "small" nuclear plant mishap could poison thousands of square miles of land and water, rendering such areas uninhabitable for both man and beast, indefinitely.    The ghostly landscape of Chernobyl, now devoid of all lifeforms forever, serves as a stark example that hints at the magnitude of catastrophes that could ensue when the nuclear genie escapes the bottle.

Nigeria currently burns off millions of cubic meters of natural gas, around the clock every day.  Simply harnessing that continuously squandered resource will power the entire nation of Nigeria, provide fuel for cooking to every soul there, AND put a stop to the acid rain, water pollution and black skies currently poisoning the lungs, land and fishery habitats of the Niger Delta's inhabitants.

In northern Nigeria, the tropical sun burns down relentlessly year-round.  Assuming that backward, unproductive fundamentalist enclave remains inextricably glued like a fat tick to the rest of Nigeria, electrical power can be produced in abundance there with currently available solar power alternatives.   To that end, Nigerian scientists and policy makers could visit the enormous solar power facility that sprawls across the Arizona desert, with a view to replicating that feat in the Nigerian deserts, which currently lie to waste.

Say NO to nuclear power.   Chernobyl, Russia,  Fukishima, Japan and Three Mile Island, USA all serve as stark warnings to steer clear of the nuclear non-option.

Let them build it not anywhere close to where i reside, this is going to be ethnic cleansing.

Is it the Retardeen govt that hasnt gotten a full grasp of our present hydro, thermal and Gas powered electricity that wants to venture into Nuclear power? These guys are nuts. always looking for avenues to siphon money into their pockets. abegii, the location of these power plant shouldnt be far from Aso Rock. Useless set of people.

Let him situate the first station in Utuoke, Bayelsa and run it for 10 years with no mishaps.

kodewrita:

Let him situate the first station in Utuoke, Bayelsa and run it for 10 years with no mishaps.

Your point is well taken, but unfortunately, it is not even that simple. Radioactive hot spots have been found as far away as Tokyo, from the Fukushima accident. If orderly nations have a heck of a time controlling this thing, why would a nation that cant even maintain its own roads even bother to try? God, how much longer of this "fresh air". What kind of stupidity is this.

Herein lies the koko of the matter.
Why plan to institute nuclear power, now, at a time when public opinion has undergone a sea change?

alj_harem:

Good idea , good intention
Problem, maintainance issue.
@ Beaf,
Do you not think Nigeria should look for alternative ways instead of NPE
I mean build more dams and co. I do not want chernobyl disaster to happen in Nigeria
I hope you see my point

Afro_Blue:

There's a growing political trend to close them
Belgium aims to phase out nuclear power by 2025
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15500989,00.html
Germany plans to shutter its reactors, which provide 28 percent of its power, by 2022.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/nuclear/belgium-joins-countries-opting-out-of-nuclear-power

Horus:

The biggest problem that is posed is always how to ged rid of the nuclear waste, which is always toxic and cannot be safely disposed of.

ekt_bear:

country with #7 NG reserves on earth has no business bothering with nuclear.
At times I wonder why God decided to even give any of these resources to Nigeria.
A land swimming in natural gas, but instead looking for nuclear power.
Next I will hear of someone starving to death after being trapped in a grocery store

More comments from an Oyibo forum

We will have to keep tabs on this, before the rods are put in the reactor will be a good time to leave the country and go far,far away. 

   

Chernobyl in Nigeria, lol

Anybody know the location of the new Chernobyl and the direction of the prevailing winds.
Knowing the Nigerian mentality for a challenge they will build where there is a shortage of water and have tankers supplying daily 

I glow, I glow
So its off to work I go
I just love Uranium 238
I glow, I glow I glow, I glow.
Ha ha not to worry folks, God's main branch office happens to be in Nigeria, as evidenced by the proliferation of churches and mosques every ten yards, so whatever oversights occur in the construction, maintenance and radioactive waste disposal of Nigeria's new nuke plant will ALL be addressed by the Almighty with urgency, over the million-year half-life of the material in question. 
Let the fission and fusion commence !

Mug,
I don't think any of us need to worry. Based on the time it takes to construct a nuc power plant, even in a real place where they know what they are doing, and the fact that the actual nuke part goes in last, I doubt if even the freshest fish now residing in Naija will still be around to witness the mushroom shaped cloud when they throw the change over switch.

They lost a Satellite in space, now they want to kill themselves here. Hopefully they'll have roads to the plant for the tankers to supply water in the first place. 

Nuclear rods will soon appear on sale at the go slow markets besides hard water will be sold as 'Pure Water' in small polythene packs at the kabo-kabo bus stops, The Police may use the active Nuclear Rods as batons to quell riots and control crowds

This is madness.
But on the other side, Nigeria has already an active nuclear reactor in Zaria, at the university ( http://www.rertr.anl.gov/RERTR27/Abstracts/S10-4_Jonah.html )
And presently, in Africa, the most worrysome place for nuclear powerplant is in Kinshassa, with a reactor installed by USA, not Russia. Rods have been stolen, the security of the installation is not guarantied etc,

It will be just another Ajaokuta, no need to worry. 28years and not one kilo of steel

Given Nigeria's notoriously poor maintenance culture, this is only a quick way to exterminate Nigerians en-masse! Our enemies will rejoice at the news! The Americans will promptly decontaminate the region after the nuclear disaster and secure direct access to the oil. A win-win situation for the world!

I hope they will build all their nuclear plants on some outlying islands. People wen no fit maintain ordinary transformers wan use nuclear. Hisssssss.

LOL. I know the people selling this idea to the dumb azzes in government know this will be an easy way to reduce the Nigerian population to close to zero. Forget about the waste disposal; I know within a few weeks somebody will go to sleep and we will have an explosion that will dwarf what Hiroshima and Nagasaki witnessed.

ARE WE READY FOR A NUCLEAR PLANT
1. One of the world largest produce of oil, that allowed it's four refinery to break down at the same time due to lack of maintenance and now import fuel.
2. A country of 150million people that have no functional rail system or road network.
3.A country were over 3 aircraft accident occur within 6month, killing hundred of persons and a federal minister, tells the nation, it was due to cult activities.
4. A country were over $5 billion was spent in the construction of steel industry and four rolling mills with no steel to show for it.
5.A nation were over 7 bomb went off,  killing  over  100 persons and a single arrest or prosecution has not been made by the police till date.
6. A country were a group of militant held the nation to ransom and the government have to negotiate and pay them.
the list/example is endless.

if the federal government go ahead, with the crazy proposed nuclear plant, don't be supprise, millions will sleep and not weak up and the explanation will be that the man that have the key to the control was held up in a traffic and we will all laugh about it and move on as usual.

A word is enough for the wise.

Always talking about what we can not achieve, common refinery we cannot maintain and now it is nuclear power. dreams

I have NO problem with this over zealous project. As long as they build and site it in ABUJA, preferably some few Kilometers from ASO ROCK.

If No land they can try Sokoto State, few Kilometers from the SUltans's Palace.