Government Plans To Build Nuclear Power Plants to Meet
 Energy Needs by 2015
 24th NOV 2006

Nigeria plans to build nuclear power plants to meet a major part of the country's electricity demand by 2015, a government minister said yesterday. A meeting of the Cabinet chaired by President Olusegun Obasanjo set a target for the country to generate 40,000 megawatts of electricity within the next decade, with a significant part coming from nuclear energy, Information Minister Frank Nweke told reporters in the capital, Abuja.” To achieve this objective ... we must exploit other sources, particularly nuclear power as a major component, not just an option," Nweke said.

Nigeria runs two nuclear research centers, one in Zaria and another outside the capital, Abuja, set up under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear regulatory body. It currently has no nuclear power plant. Nigeria is Africa's leading oil and gas producer and the world's eight-biggest oil exporter, but remains a low electricity generator and consumer. The country runs on less than half of national capacity of 6,000 megawatts of electricity, with power cuts frequent and the electricity infrastructure run down by years of corruption and mismanagement. Nweke said Nigeria cannot rely on its natural gas, coal and hydroelectric resources alone to meet its energy requirements and wants nuclear power to supplement them. Nweke said Nigeria has no ambition to acquire nuclear weapons and will comply with all international requirements for safe use of nuclear energy.

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