The nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine?
Re : Russia woos Nigeria on nuclear power plant
The Guardian newspaper of Nigeria reported on Monday, 01 August 2011 that Russia is bidding to build Nigeria’s first nuclear plant. It is the most unfortunate thing that will happen to this country. Yes it works in the developed countries, but they have actually been challenged by the difficulties to manage their various nuclear plants and at a great cost too.
We don’t have the technological advancement to handle it. We can’t even maintain our roads, railways, no national carrier, etc. Look at the white elephant project at Ajaokuta and the mismanaged Delta Steel project which was almost taken over by the son of one of Nigeria’s former rulers.
Our tertiary institutions cannot be upgraded where you see our beautiful daughters going to toilet with polythene bags while those who have ruled this country instead of upgrading them have established their own private universities and even boasting that they pay their lecturers in dollars.
Nigerian legislators are earning more than lawmakers in America and Britain and even more than the U.S. President, the most powerful leader in the world today.
The recent Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the largest of the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, was an eye opener that even Venezuela abandoned the idea of having a nuclear plant. Japan was able to handle their catastrophe, because of their technological expertise as a super power. They started by using robots before it was safe for any human to get into the nuclear plant complex.
Have we forgotten the Chernobyl disaster? The nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine?
Think of Nigeria of today, with the madness of terrorist bomb explosions by Niger Delta militants, Boko Haram and other errant groups. I am not talking of corruption that is our religion and indiscipline that is now our culture. How can we cope with a nuclear plant? There is this African adage; if a rotten egg breaks in your hands you will need more water to wash it off. Can we handle the emergencies of nuclear plant accidents?
If the country is serious on how to handle the issue of power supply, there are safer options readily available to be explored.
Solar energy is cheaper and safer to handle which some Europeans and American companies have been using successfully.
The northern parts of this country have vast land mass and sunlight most period of the year. We have been lamenting about desert encroachment, but the Chad basin can be utilized to use solar panels that can generate light for the arid regions.
The coastal littoral states of Niger Delta, including the Cross Rivers and Lagos are all good for wind mills that we have all seen in some European countries. If some street lights in Lagos are using solar panels to operate, then why can’t the government explore that means to take care of our lingering problem of inadequate power supply?
The use of coal will also play a very important role in getting Nigeria light.
The gas being flared before I was born can be converted for energy. How many oil producing countries in the world today still flare gas?
The Russians who laid gas pipelines through Ukraine to other parts of Europe should advise us on how to stop gas flaring and use the surplus liquefied natural gas to supply power in Nigeria instead of exporting it to the developed countries.
To be honest, we cannot maintain a nuclear plant and if Russians build it, how long are they going to stay to keep operating it for us or is this going to be another kind of enslavement which I believe the western world will always want projects that will keep the developing world perpetually under their apron strings in another kind neo colonization.
We launched our communications satellite NigeriaSat-1 into orbit, but of what value is it today? Is it still there since it was even reported missing sometime ago?
For nuclear plant, the answer is capital NO!
We can’t handle it, otherwise one day all of us will be killed due to lack of maintenance and greed.
Our people, animals, farmlands and water will be polluted one day. Remember it is odourless and tasteless. How can we dictate that there is problem?
The cost of taking care of a nuclear accident is costlier than installing it.
Our children will not forgive us for bringing in a rotten egg that we will need more water to wash our hands.
A stubborn fly always follows the corpse to the grave”
~ By Obi Ikeoku.
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