Proposed nuclear plant ‘threat to Niger Delta environment’

Mr Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) made the observation in a speech at the opening of the HOMEF’s sustainability academy in Abuja.
Bassey said that Nigeria lacked the maintenance culture to handle nuclear plant. “We all witnessed what happened in Japan and if we cannot even properly manage the hydro and geothermal plants we have our risk in going into nuclear is high.”
“If there is an accident what happens? Remember in 2012 over 300 Nigerians died in a simple flood incident that occurred and we want to impose on ourselves a task we lack the technical ability to handle,” he added.
He noted that nuclear power was an expensive venture that we don’t need. The country is already blessed with renewable energy sources, we don’t need to waste resources on nuclear, he said.
Bassey said that the biggest challenge with nuclear power plant was the waste. Do we have the technical know-how to dispose of the waste? Or we want to dump it in the sea or on the environment?
He urged government to pay attention to issues of exposure of workers to toxic chemicals in workplaces saying that such exposure killed many Nigerians yearly.
“Because we don’t have data on such issues it is difficult to keep track of the numbers but this thing happens and a lot of workers die as a result of exposure,” he said.