Nigeria-Russia cooperation agreement on nuclear plants unacceptable -ERA

Bassey

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) founded by Nnimmo Bassey has criticized the Nigerian government’s cooperation agreement with Russia’s ROSATOM to build four nuclear power plants in the country despite the inherent dangers they portend and at a time most civilized nations are exploring safe renewables.

A ROSATOM release (http://www.rosatom.ru/en/press-centre/news/russia-and-nigeria-signed-an-inter-governmental agreement-about-construction-of-a-center-for-nuclear/n) stated that the Nigeria-Russia deal was brokered on 30 May 2016 on the sidelines of the VIII International Forum ATOMEXPO 2016 which held May 30 - June 1, 2016 in Moscow and will start with the construction of a Center for Nuclear Research and Technology in Sheba, Abuja.

The agreement provides for the construction of a center with the two-circuit pool-type reactor of the Russian design and a nominal power rating of 10 MW in Sheba, Abuja. Four nuclear plants that ROSATOM will build will cost $80billion with the first expected to be ready by 2025.

The other three will be ready by 2035.

In the release, Franklin Erepamo Osaisai, Chairman/CEO, Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC) said the plants will be financed by ROSATOM which will then build, own, operate and transfer them to the Nigerian government which will enter a power-purchasing agreement.

Kogi and Akwa Ibom States are to host the plants.

But in a reaction to the development, ERA/FoEN said the decision of the Nigerian government to experiment with the nuclear option isn’t only shocking, but also a betrayal of the Nigerian people who’ve roundly rejected the dangerous path since the technology is unsafe and by virtue of its total control by the Russian firm, will create a state within the Nigerian state.

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