Nigeria in talks with Russia's Rosatom for nuclear power plants

Lagos - Nigeria is in talks with Russia's
state-owned Rosatom to build nuclear power
plants, as Africa's most populous nation tries
to end of decades of blackouts that has
blighted its economy.
Africa's biggest economy has no experience in
developing and operating nuclear power plants
but has a gamma facility and small reactors
producing around 30 kilowatts for research,
Franklin Erepamo Osaisai, chief executive of
the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission said
on its website, adding that nuclear power will
guarantee long-term energy supply.
"We have an intergovernmental agreement
with Nigeria, but no concrete decisions have
been made," a Rosatom spokesman said.
One nuclear power plant costs between $5
billion to $8 billion, a source at the company
said.
80 percent of Nigeria's power plants are gas-
fired.
Rosatom has a contract to build a new plant
in Hungary and has agreed to build reactors
in India and Kazakhstan. It is also planning to
build more reactors in Iran in addition to the
Russia-built Bushehr plant, Iran's first nuclear
facility, launched there in 2011.
Rosatom's investment programme, sourced
from the state budget, allows it to spend
about $300 - $350 billion per year to build
nuclear plants in Russia and abroad, a
business that has been hit by global safety
concerns after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear
disaster.
Nigeria, with a population of around 170
million, has installed power capacity that
fluctuates between around 6,000 to just over
7,000 MW, according to the transmission
company.
South Africa's capacity is almost seven times
greater for a population less than a third as
big.
Nigeria broke up its monopoly on power
generation and distribution by privatising the
sector two-years ago, hoping to attract foreign
investors. But the amount of power produced
has stagnated at around half total capacity.
Some of the older plants, sold in October
2013, are in dire need of an upgrade while the
fledgling generating firms lacking the cash as
distributors struggle with non-paying
consumers and inadequate gas supplies
required to keep the plants running.