The federal government has announced that it was already making efforts to generate electricity from nuclear materials, particularly through the exploration, exploitation and utilisation of Uranium.
It has invited experts from the International Atomic Enery Agency (IAEA) to conduct a one-week training for nuclear practitioners as well as security officers in the country on the extraction, exploitation and utilisation of the substance.
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said that it was important for Nigeria to exploit available resources to meet her power needs.
“Last week at the National Council on Power conference in Kaduna, the issue of uranium for power generation was actually canvassed as a vital component in the energy mix equation.
So, this training is coming at the right time where capacity to explore, exploit and utilise uranium for power generation and other uses cannot be overemphasised. And apart from the exploration, exploitation and utilisation, the security and health aspects of uranium needs to be taken care of, and that is why we have security delegates here,” he said.
The Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NNRA), Prof. Lawrence Dim stated that the latest training would expose participants on how to improve uranium for power generation, as the country does not have the required technology to do that at the moment.
“Uranium exploration in Nigeria is quite safe. We have not had any cause to find out that there is any high level of radiation or exposure relating to that.
“The issue is that the uranium we get in our soil is the natural uranium; although it has radioactive material, the concentration is low. So we don’t have any situation where the level of radiation coming out from it is detected to be harmful,” he said.
“This course is also to enlighten our people on the implication of uranium mining. For if somebody gets a substantial part of uranium, that will trigger security concern. So we have developed regulations and have gazetted them to practitioners to serve as a guide in the usage and movement of uranium materials,” he added.
