Nigeria is committed to implementing international nuclear safeguards and safety regime in the process of generating electricity from nuclear power plants, local media reported Wednesday.
Shamsideen Elegba, director-general of the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA), said at a training course for lawyers on nuclear safety and radiological protection in Lagos that Nigeria had developed peaceful application of nuclear technology in various fields, including petroleum, health, manufacturing, mining, construction, agriculture, water resources, education and research.
According to the Punch newspaper, there were no regulatory controls in the use of nuclear technology in the country prior to 2001.
"Radiological incidents and accidents were not reported; radiation employers had no responsibilities to their workers and to the general public." Elegba was quoted as saying.
"Radiation workers had no rights to radiation safety, access to radioactive sources and nuclear materials and their disposal were not regulated," he said.
The NNRA was established by the Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Act 19 of 1995 to address safety concerns in the application of nuclear technology.
Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum Odein Ajumogobia said nuclear energy could be utilized to supplement electric power generation in the country, adding that poverty eradication could not be achieved without sufficient power generation.
Source:Xinhua
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