“ONE of the first lessons for students of global technology management is that the nations playing at the centre stage of world economy became successful by harnessing the natural resources of their lands and effectively altering those from other lands. Emphatically, Nigeria is a nation blessed with water, oil, coal and natural gas. Ironically, these natural resources are being wasted despite the fact that they all constitute proper avenues for substantial job creation for the teeming number of unemployed youths and adults. It must be emphasised in many ways that the present commercially and economically useful energy mix in Nigeria remains oil, coal, natural gas and hydro systems.”

 – Prof Awa Uma, New Jersey, USA.

My name is Prof. Awa Uma, an authority in Power Technology now of the Engineering Faculty at Fairley Dickinson University’s (FDU) Metro Campus, New Jersey, USA. Last week, I read the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, and the government’s immediate reaction to your campaign to save gunshot victims of armed robbers, who may no longer need Police Report before they are treated at the hospitals’ emergency wards. I was in Nigeria during the Easter holidays running from one official to another, armed with my proposals to solve our electrical generation problems. As for now, a Nigerian electrical engineer is the provider of Power for the State of Ohio. I would be encouraged if my scientific recommendation for power generation is published by your influential Column and, hopefully, if the Minister of Power or interested officials implement those recommendations so that the suffering of our people due to lack of electricity would in time come to an end. Below, therefore, is Prof Uma’s summary piece, advising on Nigeria’s alternative power generation.

It could also be surmised from available statistics that most of the more than two dozens or thereabout countries that are beneficiaries of nuclear power plants do not have fossil fuel, as their natural resources. At present, there are little over 100 operating nuclear reactors in the U. S., producing little over 20% or about 800 billion kilowatt-hours of the nation’s electrical needs. The worldwide operating figures stand at about 460 nuclear plants, producing about 20% of the world‘s electrical needs. Apart from clean energy in terms of operational emissions, these figures put one of the major benefits of nuclear power plants as contributing to the global solutions of electrical shortage since it provides little over 18% of the world’s electrical requirements. Ongoing constructions of new nuclear plants are expected to add about two dozens more plants to the above figure in the next several years.

Nuclear energy has some benefits for a country like Nigeria, aspiring to become a technological society. Most countries without oil and natural gas resources depend on nuclear energy for massive electrical generation. A major direct benefit of electrical nuclear energy is that when handled properly, it is environmentally friendly and provides a critical mass alternative to other electrical generation options. Another direct benefit is energy and power education that may lead to incremental educational reform as well as energy and power business environments. There are also some indirect benefits with the centrality of moving the country forward towards accelerated technology development.

The indirect benefits can be extrapolated from lessons from technology acquisition of a complex technology. The benefit lesson in all this is that a complex technology development, such as a nuclear power system must be designed with a good vision followed by problem solving strategies capable of addressing its complexities. In this case, techno-economic and strategic technology management strategies that (a) must be sustainable and easily transferable, such as are exemplified by computer and information development and presently are now being transferred to alternative energy development in the United States, (b) must be rooted in democratic ideologies with honest democratic intentions and (c) must inculcate strategic technology management solutions with broad human and environmental safety and ethical safeguards.

The major downsides of nuclear energy that must be understood by decision makers and citizens alike are the negative aspects of the interactions among safety issues, costs factors and technological resources: Human, natural, institutional and produced. The number one issue in nuclear plant development is safety and it is the sole responsibility of the government to promulgate and regulate nuclear safety standards to ensure personnel and public protection. While incidents may occur within the nuclear establishment, public safety is concerned with nuclear accidents that would usually occur with wide implications beyond the nuclear establishment. Both incidents and accidents may occur in various degrees during installation, operation, maintenance and decommissioning. And we also have dangerous radioactive safety issues, such as the ongoing bags of radioactive waste being swept out by flood in Japan.

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To be continued

Australia and Namibia for example are unfortunately not one of the Nigeria’s abundant natural resources. Like solar energy, nuclear energy is commercially useful but economically wasteful for a country like Nigeria that is yet to contain the flaring of its natural gas and tap all the energy resources in the land. Unlike solar energy, nuclear energy is a higher risk, higher cost, and low indigenous job creation renewable energy that does not necessarily have advantage over fossil fuels in the particular case of Nigeria.

Nigeria has a specialised case whereby the critical issues of safety, costs, and technological resources must be thoroughly evaluated to justify any nuclear option in the face of its abundant energy mix. The flaring of natural gas in Nigeria hardly justifies any acquisition of alternative energy not to talk about massive acquisition of them. If employing nuclear energy, for example, will keep the natural gas flaring and polluting, it makes a better safety and economic sense to employ massive utilisation of fossil fuels in the country. Nuclear energy, though environmentally safe, cannot escape the issues of public safety. Without first containing the gas flaring, the addition of nuclear energy will create a condition of continued environmental pollution and possible public safety problems. Let us first begin to ask our president, governors, and all those occupying or aspiring to occupy our government houses between now and 2020 what they will do if by 4:30 A.M on a national holiday period, an aggrieved politician send a gang of criminals, militants or terrorists with killer or kidnapping mentalities to seize a nuclear power plant and threaten to cause scientists at the site to compromise public safety.

The question now is what are the usable and economical energy resources and supplies available to Nigeria that are needed to meet electrical power demand? The obvious answer is water (hydro), coal, oil and natural gas that are amenable to central and distributed power production. Even with our energy mix, distributed power options, which strategically produce electricity by means of decentralized small power systems close to the consumer as opposed to centralized power systems that transmit power over long distances have not been explored in Nigeria. One of the first lessons for students of global technology management is that the nations playing at the center stage of world economy became successful by harnessing the natural resources of their lands and effectively altering those from other lands. Emphatically, Nigeria is a nation blessed with water, oil, coal, and natural gas. Ironically, these natural resources are being wasted despite the fact that they all constitute proper avenues for substantial job creation for the teeming number of unemployed youths and adults. It must be emphasized in many ways that the present commercially and economically useful energy mix in Nigeria remain Oil, Coal, Natural Gas, and Hydro systems.

In the near or far future, it is possible that Nigeria may diversify to embrace all of the above alternative energy systems and others under research such as ITER, Fuel cell, Bio conversion and Ocean thermal energy. ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), a primary research outfit in Southern France jointly established by the United States, India, Japan, China, South Korea, Russia, and the European Union, is especially promising. ITER is based on plasma technology and seeks to simulate the sun on earth and if successful would operate or use 50 megawatt of power to produce 500 megawatts.

Prof. Awa Uma taught Electricity and Power Technology at Ohio State University and Energy and Power at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. His experiences span many US manufacturing and construction industries. He has also provided vocational expertise as an employee and contractor to the US Department of Labor, Wash. DC.