The Federal Government has expressed its fears over the radioactive substances at the Ajaokuta Steel Complex.

The radioactive substances which were said to have been imported by Tyazprom export (TPE) from the defunct Soviet Unoin between 1983 and 1988 are now seen as a potential threat to the environment.

Mohammed Sada, Minister of Mines and Steel, while speaking with the newsmen in Abuja, at the ministry’s headquarter, said an agency committee has been directed by President GoodLuck Jonathan to provide an immediate solution to storing the substances to prevent it causing health hazards.

The minister noted that the management of the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL) had, in 2004, notified the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) that the importation and deployment of the substances were not subject to any authorization because there was no such legal requirement in the country then.

He however pointed out that the substances, in their present disposition, posed safety and security risks as some of them could be used to make Radiological Dispersive Devices (RDD) and capable of contaminating the environment.