By Musa Adamu
Abuja
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has restated the commitment of the federal government in diversifying its energy mix into nuclear technology to provide for its electricity needs.
He said this was in line with the government intention of going beyond the traditional sources energy such as gas, oil and hydro to include nuclear and other renewable sources such as solar, biomass and wind.
The Minister, who spoke while receiving in audience the visiting, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, commended the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC) and its team of experts for the research works and human capacity building efforts in the specialised field.
He urged the NAEC to leave no stone unturned in letting Nigerians know that nuclear energy was for peace and that it could be used for developmental purposes in engineering, medicine, environmental protection, security, agriculture and food security.
Fashola challenged Atomic Energy experts to do more in the area of public enlightenment as many Nigerians had limited knowledge about the use of nuclear technology for power.
He said: “You must begin to break down the seeming complex issues around nuclear power into simple terms and language that our people can understand, we must try to demystify issues around nuclear power in Nigeria.”
According to the Minister, all the procurement activities for the first nuclear power plant with generation capacity of 1,200mw of power to the national grid by 2025 would be done as scheduled.
He said the two sites selected were Geregu in Kogi state and Itu in Akwa-Ibom state.
Speaking earlier, the visiting Director-General of the International Atomic Agency, Mr Amano, informed that the IAEA regards Nigeria as an important partner, and that because of this agency wants to transfer nuclear technology.
He said the agency was convinced the country would not use the technology adversely.