Nigeria’s nuclear power option

Rosatom is to develop Nigeria’s nuclear capability in that respect. According to the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC), Franklin Erepamo Osaisai, Rosatom will build an atomic energy plant as the first of four such facilities planned to boost electricity supply across the nation by providing additional 4,800mw by the year […]

Rosatom is to develop Nigeria’s nuclear capability in that respect. According to the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC), Franklin Erepamo Osaisai, Rosatom will build an atomic energy plant as the first of four such facilities planned to boost electricity supply across the nation by providing additional 4,800mw by the year 2035, at 1,200mw per plant. Each of the plants is expected to cost $20 billion.
According to Osaisai, Rosatom will hold majority stake in the facilities, and provide the finance, build, operate and transfer the plants to the Nigerian government, which will thereafter enter into a power purchasing deal with the Russian firm.  For a country with a population of some 170 million, and an installed electricity generating capacity of between 6,000 – 7,000mw, of which only 3,500mw is actually available, the nuclear programme offers unique attractions. And the Rosatom deal also offers additional option to launch Nigeria’s planned nuclear power programme, with hopefully minimal risk of the hazards associated with operating atomic energy facilities. However, the deal is fraught with challenges. First, it is coming at a time of global concerns over the safe use of nuclear power, particularly in the light of the recent Fukushima disaster in Japan.  Germany on the other hand has stopped developing new nuclear plants. Russia itself, when it was part of the old Soviet Union, suffered from the massive nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. The concerns for Nigeria centre on whether, with less fully formed technical capacity and scientific infrastructure, the country is ready to take to the nuclear road in generating its power.
Such concerns were echoed recently when the electricity workers’ union announced that it was opposed to any plan to install nuclear power plants in favour of what it said were safer and more viable alternatives.  It argued that the country should focus on completing ongoing hydropower plants such as the ones in Mambilla, Zungeru and Oji River, with respective capacities of 3,000mw, 1,000mw and 1,000mw, among others.
Beyond the reservations over Nigeria’s yawning deficit in capability to manage a nuclear power are the circumstances in which the Rosatom deal was brokered. For a venture that is expected to impact monumentally on the country in terms of cost and timeframe, it suffers from poor public participation in conception and follow-up. There is no indication that the National Assembly is aware of, or involved in, it either.
Besides, Nigeria’s current power roadmap envisages the efficient exploitation of traditional and safer sources of generation such as hydro, coal, gas and the renewable options like solar and wind. These are yet to be fully exploited. The recourse to generating only 4,800mw from nuclear energy at the cost of $80 billion, even before exploiting available options, portrays the Rosatom deal as being hasty in conception and therefore subject to further scrutiny.
The case is not helped by the circumstance in which the outgoing administration is committing the nation to the Rosatom project in the twilight of its tenure, when it is no more in a position to even start it up. Of course, Nigeria needs to tap all the energy sources it can, including the nuclear, if it is considered appropriate.  But this particular project amounts to imposing on succeeding administrations unsolicited burdens which may not be easy to bear or clear. The saga of the Ajakaota steel complex readily comes to mind as example.
There are vast investment potentials, even in the energy sector, that Nigeria’s Russian partners can invest in for the mutual benefits of both countries. The power sector policy of the incoming administration may, or may not, include the exploration of nuclear sources, but it would need to review the Rosatom arrangement to safeguard Nigeria’s national interests.