IAEA concludes Nigerian infrastructure review ahead of nuclear program

A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has finished a two-week mission to review  infrastructure development in Nigeria for its fledgling nuclear power program, the IAEA said on Monday.

At the end of the evaluation late last week, the team said the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC),  the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) and the Nigerian government as a whole are making significant progress in developing the infrastructure needed to support a nuclear energy program.

The international team, consisting of representatives from Germany, South Africa, Spain and Brazil, listed steps the country needs to take before the nuclear energy program can continue, such as strengthening the regulatory bodies, enacting a comprehensive legal framework, creating policies to handle spent fuel and waste, and developing the human resources necessary to build, operate and regulate a nuclear program.

"NAEC and NNRA demonstrated a good understanding of the work that still needs to be done to be ready for the next stage of the program," Anne Starz, the mission team's leader and acting head of the IAEA’s Nuclear Infrastructure Development Section, said.

The team said remedies to address the concerns they brought to the attention of Nigerian authorities are in the planning stages.