NAEC praises ABU nuclear research reactor programme | EduCeleb
EduCeleb
5th September 2020
Chairman of the Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC) Muktar Ali, has expressed satisfaction with the state of the Nigerian nuclear research reactor domiciled at Ahmadu Bello University Centre for Energy Research and
Training.
Ali made the remark when he was taken round some of the research facilities at the Centre by the Vice-Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University, Professor Kabir Bala, and Director, Centre for Energy Research and Training, Professor Ibrahim
Musa Umar, shortly after the Centre’s Board of Governors meeting recently.
The Chairman was particularly impressed with the performance of the nuclear research reactor when it was test-run for him to see how it operates.
In 2018, the Centre successfully replaced its highly enriched uranium (HEU) core nuclear research reactor with low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel.
This was in response to the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) and Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) campaign for
minimization, and to the extent possible elimination of the use of highly-enriched uranium core in civil nuclear applications.
Ali explained that NAEC, which funds and regulates all nuclear research activities of the Centre, would ensure that the research body achieved the objectives for which it was established.
The Board of Governors’ meeting, presided over by Bala, was the first in six years.
Effort is being made by the University administration to turn the Centre around; hence the appointment of Professor Ibrahim Musa Umar as the Director of the Centre to oversee the place.
Umar, who is former Vice-Chancellor of Gombe State University, was a one time Director of the Centre.