Ahmadu Bello University has celebrated the commissioning of the Nigerian Nuclear Research Reactor 1, the country’s first such facility. President Olusegun Obasanjo attended a ceremony on 30 September marking the reactor’s entry into full service after start-up on 2 February.
The universitiy’s Centre for Energy Research and Training plans to use to the Chinese 30kW Miniature Neutron Source Reactor for medical applications, geochemical mapping, forensic investigation as well as mineral and petrochemical analysis and exploration.
The International Atomic Energy Agency assisted the Nigerian government in commissioning the light water reactor, valued at $1.5 million, in order to ‘reinforce and widen the human resource base to sustain nuclear technology’ associated with the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Negotiations regarding the return of spent fuel to China are ongoing.
