The Federal Government has commenced moves to generate electricity from nuclear materials, particularly uranium.
To achieve this, it invited experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency to conduct a one-week training for nuclear practitioners as well as security officers in the country on the extraction, exploitation and utilisation of uranium.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the national training course on nuclear security for the uranium extraction industry in Abuja, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, stated that it was important for Nigeria to exploit available resources in order to meet its power needs.
Fayemi, who was represented by a deputy director in the ministry, Wuyep Karnap, said, “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 need to be taken care of, and that is why we have security delegates here.”
In March, the Federal Government announced that it was working towards generating 4,000 megawatts of electricity from nuclear sources.
It stated that the plan was to start a programme in the coming years that would give the country 1,000MW in the first instance, which would be increased to 4,000MW thereafter.
This, according to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, was disclosed during a meeting President Muhammadu Buhari had with the Director-General of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
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