Radiation is energy from any source travelling through space or some material. It can be in the form of light, heat or sound.
It can also be in the form of radioactivity or emissions from unstable atoms giving-off some excess energy or mass, or both, in an attempt to reach stability. Such emissions are radiation and can be:
Electromagnetic waves like Cosmic rays, X-rays, or Gamma rays which are similar to X-rays but have higher energy; or
Particulate like Alpha and Beta radiation.
Radiation is said to be Ionizing (radiation) when it produces ions or charged particles in the atoms making-up what it comes in contact with. Ionizing radiation is therefore, radiation that ionizes atoms.
It has great significance in health because when the atoms making-up the body are ionized, they become charged, or unstable electrically, and react differently, with great implications.
Ionizing radiation can result in radiation burns, mutation or genetic changes, foetal malformation, still births, increase in cancer cases (especially thyroid cancer) and death.
The characteristic decay period of a radioactive substance is long and is referred to as Half-life – for the element, Thorium-232, it is 14 billion years.
The need for the strict regulation of the use of ionizing radiation-emitting substances can therefore, not be over-emphasized.
There are many sources emitting ionizing radiation in use in Nigeria. Some of them are in oil prospecting at depths of up to 10,000 feet.
They sometimes get lost in operations, posing serious environmental hazards and poisoning underground water. Fishing, or the process of retrieving them, is very difficult.
Other uses of Ionizing Radiation in Nigeria are in gauging devices in bottling companies to ascertain that the level of liquids in bottles is uniform.
In metallurgy, sources emitting ionizing radiation are also used in checking the integrity of welded steel. This is particularly useful for oil pipelines, especially those offshore, to avoid leaks and environmental pollution.
Diagnostic machines like x-ray and scanning machines use low doses of radiation to make tissues and organs visible without opening up the patient.
In nuclear medicine centres like the University of Ibadan Teaching Hospital, the so-called radiopharmaceuticals are commonly used with imaging techniques in diagnosis and treatment.
Goitre, swelling of the thyroid glands in the neck, is an iodine-deficiency disease. Mildly radioactive iodine can be administered to the patient and the emissions from the atomic nuclei can enable doctors detect how it goes inside the patient and how much goes to the thyroid.
They do this by placing a radiation sensor or monitor outside the patient to track the radiopharmaceutical.
The nuclear industry is, and is supposed to be, one of the most regulated in the world and is overseen by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA.
A Radiation Portal Monitor, RPM, it donated to Nigeria was installed in the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, in April, 2009 to detect and check illicit trafficking of radioactive materials into, and out of, Nigeria.
Nigeria does not have a Nuclear Power Plant, but, also has many big sources emitting ionizing radiation like the small 30-kilowatt Neutron Research Reactor, the Nigerian Research Reactor (NIRR-1), in the Centre for Energy Research and Training, CERT, Zaria.
It is used for training and in elemental analysis of minerals and other products useful in the petroleum and other industries.
It used one kilogram of Highly Enriched fissile Uranium-235 (which can last for 10 years) as nuclear fuel since it went critical (started operation) on 30 September, 2004.
A team of Nigerian experts there, led by Professor Sunday Jonah, successfully converted it from using weapon-grade Highly Enriched Uranium (90.2%) to Low Enriched Uranium (13%) in 2018.
The Highly Enriched Uranium nuclear fuel was sent back to the manufacturers in China, thereby closing the inventory.
It was replaced with Low Enriched Uranium, which is not of nuclear-grade, also from China.
The government of USA paid for the entire exercise as part of its efforts to reduce global threats from possible nuclear terrorism.
The 20-tonne-capacity Gamma Irradiation Facility in Sheda, near Abuja, which was commissioned in 2006, uses 340 kilocurie radioactive Cobalt-60 isotope and emits gamma rays.
It is used mainly in irradiating foods to extend their shelf life by killing micro-organisms in them and also dis-infests them of insects and mould. It is also useful in delaying sprouting like in yams, potatoes, onions, when they are irradiated. It can also sterilize medical equipment.
Nigeria has a 1.7 mv (mega electron volt) Tandem Accelerator in the Centre for Energy Research and Development, CERD, in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, that can fire subatomic particles for research work.
It is useful also in elemental analysis and is so sensitive that instead of conducting tests in Parts Per Million (PPM), it can test in Parts Per Billion.
In medicine, the Linear Accelerator, which is in the National Hospital, Abuja, and five other hospitals in Nigeria, is useful in radiotherapy (radiation therapy).
It is used to point ionizing radiation at cancer cells to destroy them while avoiding the healthy cells.
Nigeria’s nuclear regulator is the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority, NNRA, which came into being in May, 2001 created by the Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Act (Act 19) of 1995.
The pioneer Director-General is Professor Shamsideen Elegba.
He worked hard to ensure that operations are never below the minimum globally accepted standards and also maintained the independence of NNRA.
He boldly refused that NNRA should be placed under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology because its agencies are under his regulatory control.
Professor Elegba also embarked on aggressive capacity-building.
One of those who benefited was Mr Martin Ogharandukun, who joined from the Energy Commission of Nigeria, but, instead of pursuing a specialisation course in nuclear safety, went into Solid State Physics in University of Abuja, Nigeria.
As required by the rules, on completion of his second term, Professor Elegba handed over to the most senior director, Bulus Yabaya, as acting Director-General in April, 2011.
After eating and drinking in the night of 27 May, 2011 in an official NNRA dinner, Mr Yabaya was sick and was pronounced dead from food poisoning, same night, in National Hospital, Abuja.
There was fear and tension in NNRA as Mr Yabaya’s family came to protest his death.
In this confusion, Martin Ogharandukun, as some observers say, usurped the office of acting Director-General from 31 May, 2011, claiming to be the most senior director after Mr Bulus Yabaya.
No one handed over to him and he was never appointed by the President of Nigeria as required by Part 111, 8 (1) of the NNRA Act.
Martin Ogharandukun
Stakeholders in the industry made a case for the appointment of a qualified professional in nuclear safety and radiation protection soon as Chief Executive of NNRA. Some of them received death threats. One of them, a vocal university professor, was abducted by unknown persons.
A lawyer in a human rights and accountability group, HURAIN, went to a Federal High Court, Abuja, seeking that Martin Ogharandukun be compelled, under the Freedom of Information Act, to name the authority that appointed him acting Director-General.
The lawyer pulled out of the case, citing several threats.
If threats were made, it was not really known who made them.
It took three years until President Goodluck Jonathan appointed Professor Dim Lawrence Anikwe, a Christian from Anambra State, southeast Nigeria, as Chief Executive.
As a result, an important institution like the NNRA, was left without a substantive Director-General for that long.
Even, under the Public Service Rule 020604, an acting appointment should not exceed six months but, may be renewed for a maximum of another six months.
Meanwhile, Martin Ogharandukun had written relevant government agencies and clients of NNRA asking them not to recognise Professor Anikwe’s appointment, made by President Jonathan, as not being properly made.
With that, the handing-over formalities were delayed by a few months before Martin Ogharandukun retired or was pushed out of NNRA.
Then, after one five-year tenure, Professor Anikwe’s appointment was not renewed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Professor Anikwe handed over to Mr Isa Sambo who, incidentally, was not the most senior and was directed to hand over to Dr Yau Idris, a young director; Muslem from Kaduna State, northwest Nigeria, as acting Director-General.
Dr Yau Idris rose through the ranks rapidly in NNRA: from Chief Regulatory Officer, by-passing Assistant Director, to Deputy Director and Director under five years.
His acting appointment was confirmed on schedule by President Buhari and he became substantive Director-General of NNRA.
The opinion of stakeholders, who still missed Professor Elegba’s momentum, however, is that the nuclear industry is not run like the civil service.
None of these men who were appointed, handed over to…they feel, can fit into the big shoes of Professor Elegba.
Martin Ogharandukun stopped three members of staff who won foreign scholarships from studying and even sacked them.
The only two professors left in NNRA were frustrated out, one after the other, by NNRA management.
Professor Elegba’s capacity-building exercise suffered an irretrievable setback.
The Federal Government of Nigeria, with the support of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, is pursuing a nuclear electricity programme.
The lead agency is the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission, NAEC.
The local approving agency is the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority, NNRA.
The Nigerian Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, on 21 October, 2006 said Nigeria is working with the Russian State Nuclear Corporation, Rosatom, towards achieving that nuclear electricity goal.
Again, while declaring open the Nigeria Energy Calculator 2050 Stakeholders Engagement in Abuja on 22 April, 2021 he defended the decision, saying nuclear energy will stabilise power supply in the country.
The implementation of that nuclear electricity programme was started by Professor Erepamo Franklin Osaisai as Chief Executive of NAEC.
He emerged the best overall graduating student from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and holds a Master’s and doctorate degrees in Nuclear Engineering from the prestigious University of California, Berkeley, US.
He feels that the nuclear electricity option will diversify the energy mix for Nigeria as some oil-rich countries like United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Libya, Russia etc are doing.
By 2008, the IAEA declared that Professor Osaisai’s NAEC has passed the first of the three phases in capacity to run a Nuclear Power Plant for electricity generation.
Electricity supply is a big issue in Nigeria.
Total output is about 5,000 mw from total grid capacity of about 10,000 mw for 200 million people.
South Africa, less than half Nigeria’s population, with her two nuclear power plants, produces 40,000 mw; US – 900,000 mw.
A World Bank report in 2021 says 78% of electricity consumers in Nigeria get less than 12 hours of power every day.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission however, puts the figure at 55%.
NAEC has identified two candidate sites out of five initial sites.
The problem, industry watchers say, is that NNRA does not have the capacity to authorize and licence a Nuclear Power Plant, starting with siting.
It took the clout of Professor Elegba, who worked closely with the IAEA, to licence the nuclear reactor in Zaria and the Gamma Irradiation Facility in Sheda Science and Technology Complex, near Abuja.
The 1,000 mw Nuclear Power Plant, as is being proposed, is a bigger issue.
Another challenge is that some of the operators, reportedly, do not appreciate the need to be strictly regulated.
Dr Yau Idris, Director-General, NNRA
Furthermore, the idea of full independence of the nuclear regulator in Nigeria is sometimes questionable when NNRA uses the facilities of the operators it is regulating.
The big oil companies offer their guest houses and use their helicopters and speed boats to take NNRA regulators on offshore inspections of their facilities.
It is like a judge taking a lift to court (and back) from a litigant to hear his case because there is no official car!
Another challenge is that small operators using ionizing radiation sources in Nigeria are many, diverse and scattered and bringing all of them under full regulatory control at all times is a difficult and daunting task.
These challenges are of serious concern because the use of ionizing radiation, if not properly supervised, poses great and long-lasting danger to lives and the environment.The NNRA as Nigeria’s nuclear regulator, therefore, needs the support of all as it works to protect lives and the environment from the harmful effects of ionizing radiation.
Obiechina Obba, a science journalist, writes from Abuja.
