Henry Umahi

Nigeria has been warned about the potential danger of a ‘nuclear holocaust’ in the country if the nuclear power plant being built in Itu, Akwa Ibom State is allowed to go ahead. 

In a statement, Chairman, Global Prolife Alliance, Dr Philip C. Njemanze, tasked the government to learn from the catastrophic consequences of nuclear power plants accidents in some countries.

He also noted that the cost of the project is outrageous, arguing that it is over 30 times the cost of building alternative energy sources of solar and hydropower.

Njemanze called on Nigerians to advocate for the halt of the construction of the Itu nuclear power station, while suggesting a new power architecture for the country that includes clean energy sources of solar and hydropower.

He said: “The recent nuclear accident in Russia and the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion is a reminder of the dangers of nuclear explosions. World Health Organisation (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.

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“According to WHO, ecosystem impact of the Soviet built Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion in 1986 affected 200,000 square kilometers of Europe. The extent of the deposition varied depending on whether it was raining when contaminated air masses passed. Most of the radioactive isotopes deposited within 100 kilometers of the plant but were carried to thousands of kilometers away by wind, rainfall and rivers.

“Taking from the experience of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion, the Itu nuclear power plant explosion is projected to affect the entire ecosystem of West and Central Africa, with spill over to North and East Africa along to Nile flow regions into the Nile Delta and to the Mediterranean across Europe.

“The entire oilfields of Nigeria, the main source of national revenue, would not be accessible by humans under normal conditions.

“The nuclear holocaust would be a 100 times more than Hiroshima and Nagasaki and several times the effects of Chernobyl nuclear explosion.

“The entire ethnic groups and tribes of South-South, South East and South West Nigeria would be wiped out as a people. We have for long argued that the proposed nuclear plant project is the most expensive in the world ever.

“At $30 billion, it costs over than 30 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 standard, it is unclear why the Itu Nuclear Plant is overpriced. Lazard finds that on the average utility, solar takes nine months to build while nuclear plant may take 69 months or about six years to build.