An energy expert, Mr Adekunle Makinde, on Thursday advised the Federal Government to put in place efficient maintenance team before embarking on nuclear power generation.
Makinde, the immediate-past Chairman of Nigeria Institution of Electrical Electronics Engineers (NIEEE), gave the advice in an interview in Lagos.
He said that nuclear energy generation was not a bad idea, but the challenge would be the ability to manage and sustain it.
“There are many countries that have such power generation, but the issue has been the handling of such projects.
“There are other sources of energy that we have not harnessed.
“We have coal; there is renewable energy and biomass generation which we have not exploited.
“Nuclear energy, apart from the fact that we will be using materials that are toxic, it is very dangerous if not property managed,” he said.
The Federal Government on March 17 said it intended to generate electricity through nuclear energy in 2017.
Mr Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, disclosed this after President Muhammadu Buhari met with the Director-General, International Atomic Energy Agency, Mr Yukiya Amano in Abuja.
It said the programme would give the country 1,000 mega watts of electricity in the first instance and 4,000 mega watts later.
