Tuesday, July 19, 2016

IAEA Promotes Nuclear Insecurity in Nigeria


Incredible! The IAEA is backing development of nuclear power in Nigeria, a country with very poor occupational and industrial safety records:
Soni Daniel Abuja. 2016. IAEA backs Nigeria’s use of Uranium for power generation, says it poses no threat On July 19, 2016, Vanguard: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/07/iaea-backs-nigerias-use-uranium-power-generation-says-poses-no-threat/

With a declaration by the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, that the use of Uranium by Nigeria to generate electricity does not pose any security threat, the country appears set to explore the possibility of attaining that feat in no distant time.

The Senior Nuclear Security Officer, IAEA, Mr Robert Larsen, said at a National Training Course on Nuclear Security for the Uranium Extraction Industry in Abuja on Monday that the exploration of uranium in Nigeria does not pose any threat to global security. Larsen said, “I don’t think so; I have no reason to believe that at all. As a matter of fact I believe Nigeria is a good nuclear partner and that is why the agency is here to see how we can assist in uranium extraction.”
Mr. Larsen, Senior Nuclear Security Officer of the IAEA said that "Nigeria is a good nuclear partner"! Other observers strongly disagree, as illustrated here in this article on strengthening nuclear governance:
Justin Alger, Trevor Findlay. 2010. Strengthening Global Nuclear Governance. Issues in Science and Technology. Volume XXVII Issue 1, Fall 2010 http://issues.org/27-1/alger/ At the other end of the spectrum, Nigeria, which has repeatedly declared its desire to acquire nuclear power, is the epitome of a bad candidate. Although oil-rich like the UAE, it has a long history of mismanaging large projects, including its oil industry. Its national electricity grid has one of the worst transmission and distribution loss rates in the world, with only a fraction of its generating units operating at a given time. Violence often breaks out in the Niger Delta because of various economic, social, ethnic, and religious tensions, seriously disrupting the country’s predominantly foreign-owned oil industry. Of the developing countries pursuing nuclear power, Nigeria’s scores, calculated by the World Bank, for political violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, and control of corruption rank second worst. The country is not a party to key nuclear governance accords. Fortunately, to date its nuclear energy plans have gone nowhere.
If you want to understand why the IAEA would be promoting "uranium-backed" energy in Nigeria, take a look at this Wikileaks report on the powerful global corporations that are involved or aimed to be involved in uranium extraction in Nigeria:
Nigeria/uranium interests. Wikileaks. Released on 2013-02-13 00:00 GMT https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/11/1127854_nigeria-uranium-interests-.html
The IAEA is clearly a cheerleader for the uranium/nuclear industries.





2 comments:

  1. How many civil wars and genocides has Nigeria gone through since the Biafra-Nigeria famine in the 60 s? What is next nuclear power in Somalia?

    ReplyDelete
  2. this decision highlights IAEA's incurable romance with all things nuclear and their absolute inability to correct analyze risk.

    ReplyDelete

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