Nigeria's first operating nuclear reactor visited by ElBaradei.

[NNadir]

This is a somewhat dated story.

IAEA gives Nigeria thumbs up
20/01/2005 23:32 - (SA)

Kano - International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohammed ElBaradei has inspected Nigeria's first nuclear reactor and given it a clean bill of health, the head of the facility said on Thursday.

Ibrahim Umar, director of the nuclear research project at Amadu Bello Univerity in Zaria, said following ElBaradei's visit on Wednesday that the UN agency had co-operated in the development in the test reactor and was content it met international safety standards.

"The IAEA, being the UN organ responsible for monitoring the application of nuclear technology throughout the world, has a mandate to conduct inspections on any nuclear facility," Umar told AFP in a telephone interview.

"Since the nuclear research centre was commissioned with technical co-operation from IAEA, the visit is to see how we are utilizing the facility which is exclusively for peaceful application purposes," he said...

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1649908,00.html

For those who do not know Dr. Mohammed ElBaradei, the Egyptian lawyer, winner of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, heads of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and is a tireless worker both for nuclear disarmament and the expansion of the use of nuclear power.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2005/press.html

In his speeches, Dr. ElBaradei frequently refers to the need for nuclear power in impoverished nations, often citing the fact that the per capita power consumption in Nigeria is 8 watts per capita, less than the amount of energy that operates a baby's night light.

http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Statements/2005/ebsp2005n004.html

This is an element of Dr. ElBaradei's recent speech at MIT, which can be viewed on line:

http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/300/

Of course, Americans are only interested in countries like Nigeria to the extent that they export oil. Nigeria is a major exporter of oil to the United States. Basically as long as the oil flows, we are indifferent to however many people are killed, tortured, mutilated, impoverished, raped and so on.

The tragic history of Nigeria has been marked by colonialism, colonial war, severe sectionalism, religious warfare, military dictatorship, civil war, ethnic war and genocide.

But it's OK. The oil flows with the wonderful help of the Shell Oil company, which has major concessions in Nigeria, and that's what's important, the oil. We don't care what happens that's connected with oil as long as we can still fill our tanks, even a multiple bucks per gallon.

All that said, the current President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, who once headed a Nigerian military junta, was the first military dictator in African history, in 1979, to voluntarily surrender power to civilian rulers. Before surrendering rule, he instituted a constitution closely modeled on the now defunct constitution of the United States, which featured separation of power and declarations of human rights, including freedom of (and from) religion. After being imprisoned during another military dictatorship for speaking out against human rights violations by military rulers, President Obasanjo was twice himself elected President of Nigeria after yet another restoration of civil rule. It is understood that the Presidency of Nigeria is a very difficult job, in part since the Government exists at the pleasure of oil company executives. Although tens of thousands of people died violent deaths during his rule in sectional strife, President Obasanjo's rule has been relatively benign, at least by Nigerian standards. A recent effort to overturn Presidential term limits in Nigeria was defeated and President Obasanjo has announced his intention to leave office in 2007.

My personal less than completely informed opinion is that Obasanjo is a good guy. Maybe he isn't a statesman of the stature of the great Nelson Mandela, but the world is blessed with a Mandela only once or twice in a typical century and sometimes not at all.

Obasanjo has announced plans to week IAEA help to build two nuclear reactors in Nigeria, each at 1000MWe, to generate nuclear power. This would make Nigeria the second nation in sub-Saharan Africa to possess commercial power nuclear reactors. South Africa has two operating reactors and plans more than 20 additional reactors, most of the less than ideal Pebble Bed type. Obasanjo's decision speaks to his interest in the Nigerian future. May he retire in peace.

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/printable_information_papers/inf102print.htm

[hunter]

1. Oh no! Islamic nukes! (mild sarcasm)

Nigeria has a split personality. The Islamic fraction, mostly to the north, is fairly stable. Much of the rest of Nigeria is chaos and corruption, fostered in part by historical (and ongoing) first world exploitations.

The first world nations who import oil from Nigeria don't seem especially concerned about the inequities and instabilities of Nigeria so long as the oil is flowing.

[jpak]

2. Do they have a modern functioning grid to distribute all that power????

Don't think so.

[hunter]

4. ???

This reactor:

The Nigeria Research Reactor-1 (NIRR-1), which is currently in its first fuel
cycle was licenced to operate at 31.1 kW <1>. It is the 8th commercial miniature neutron
source reactor (MNSR) designed by China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE). First
criticality was achieved on 03 February 2004 and has been operated safely. It is
specifically designed for use in neutron activation analysis (NAA) and limited
radioisotope production. It is also suitable for teaching. In this paper, a description of the
reactor is provided, including a summary of current utilization activities and the proposed
core conversion studies.

http://www.rertr.anl.gov/RERTR27/PDF/S10-4_Jonah.pdf

[jpak]

5. No, the power reactors they aims to buy...

sheeesh

:)

[NNadir]

3. Well, like Iraq, the existence of Nigeria has more to do with colonial

map drawing than common interest.

Personally, I support exactly this kind of approach to nuclear power in third world countries - power under the direct personal supervision of the IAEA. In fact I believe that all countries should be managed by the IAEA, first and third world alike. No one can argue with the Nigerian approach of direct interface with the IAEA. It is a success story.

ElBaradei has the best energy thinking of just about anyone on this planet. His ideas about the handling of nuclear materials - international control of enrichment facilities for instance - are exactly right and hark back to the thinking of the great nuclear pioneers, men like Bohr, who also called for the internationalization of nuclear technology and other nuclear resources.

(Some people characterize Bohr as being naive on political issues. On the contrary Bohr was exactly right.)

ElBaradei is a huge international resource in our times. He is one my personal heros. His Nobel Peace Prize was absolutely appropriate.