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Pro-life and environmental groups in Nigeria have expressed dismay at the construction of a nuclear power plant in Akwa Ibom state saying that the construction of the Itu Nuclear Power Plant in Akwa Ibom by Russians represents a potential threat in the magnitude of a possible nuclear holocaust.
In a statement signed by Dr. Philip Njemanze, M.D., Chairman, Council on World Peace and Chairman of Global Prolife Alliance, the group noted that the recent nuclear accident in Russia and the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion are valid reminders of the dangers of nuclear explosions.
According to Njemanze, World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 600,000 people in close vicinity suffered severe radiation induced cancer and Leukemia in the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion. Experts taking clues from the Chernobyl nuclear explosion experience and given the dense vegetation, vast network of rivers and intense rainfall in Southern Nigeria, put the estimate of people to be severely affected across Africa at 25 million people.
Taking from the experience of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion, Njemanze projected that in the event of Itu Nuclear Power Plant explosion, the entire ecosystem of West and Central Africa will be affected, with spill over to North and East Africa along to Nile flow regions into the Nile Delta and to the Mediterranean across Europe, if anything goes wrong.
“The entire oil-fields of Nigeria the main source of national revenue would not be accessible by humans under normal conditions. The entire ethnic groups and tribes of South-South, South East and parts of South West Nigeria could be wiped out”, he stressed.
“The entire oil-fields of Nigeria the main source of national revenue would not be accessible by humans under normal conditions. The entire ethnic groups and tribes of South-South, South East and parts of South West Nigeria could be wiped out”, he stressed.
Njemanze, a neurosurgeon and scientist noted also: “We have for long argued that the proposed Nuclear Plant project is the most expensive in the world ever. At thirty billion US dollars ($20 billion USD), it costs more than 20 times the cost of building alternative energy sources of Solar and Hydropower. The recent Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis by Lazard, a leading financial advisory and asset management firm suggests that the cost per kilowatt (KW) for utility-scale solar is less than $1000, while the comparable cost per KW for nuclear power is between $6,500 and $12,250. This means that nuclear power is nearly 10 times more expensive to build than utility-scale solar on cost per KW basis.
“Even by world standards, it is unclear why the Itu Nuclear Plant is overpriced. Lazard finds that on the average utility solar takes 9 months to build while nuclear plant may take 69 months (or about 6 years) to build. It is therefore, of great national emergency for all religious leaders, social and human rights activists, and all patriotic Nigerians to advocate for a halt of the construction of Itu Nuclear Power station. We have advocated a new power architecture for Nigeria that includes clean energy sources of solar and hydropower”, Njemanze said.
