Russia has signed
agreements with Nigeria to build and operate a nuclear power plant in the
oil-rich West African nation that has a deficit of reliable power and faces
security challenges by Islamist militants in the far northeast.
Feasibility studies for the
plant and a research center construction will include site screening, capacity,
financing, and time frames of the projects, state-owned Russian nuclear company
Rosatom said in an emailed statement. Representatives from the firm and the
Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission signed the deal.
The nations in 2009 signed an
intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the field of the peaceful usage
of nuclear technologies. Nigeria in 2015 was in talks with
Rosatom to build as many as four nuclear power plants costing about $20
billion, the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission said at the time.
Nigeria, Africa’s most
populous nation, distributes an average of 4,500 megawatts of electricity. Half
the output of the Egbin power plant, the nation’s biggest, is lost because
of inadequate transmission infrastructure, its chief officer said last month.
Rosatom is seeking to build
nuclear power plants in other countries on the continent including South
Africa.
Source: Bloomberg
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