CAIRO — Egypt plans to construct three nuclear reactors to generate
electricity.
The Egyptian Electricity Ministry has drafted a plan to establish three
nuclear power plants in the country over the next 10 years. Under the plan,
Egypt would acquire or assemble light-water nuclear reactors with help from
foreign suppliers.
Electricity Minister Hassan Yunis said the first nuclear energy reactor
would be constructed by 2016. Yunis told the state-owned Egyptian daily Al
Ahram that the reactor would generate 1,000 megawatts of power and cost $1.5
billion, Middle East Newsline reported.
Yunis said Egypt suspended its nuclear energy program in the late 1980s
in the aftermath of the accident at the Chernobyl reactor in Ukraine. The
minister said Egypt would benefit from new safety technology developed for
nuclear energy facilities.
On Sunday, the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat reported that Egypt plans
to construct the reactors in the Dabaa region along the Mediterranean coast
in northwestern Egypt. The newspaper said the three reactors would be
advanced Western-origin facilities.
The report came in wake of an announcement by Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak and his son and heir-apparent, Gamal, that Cairo planned to resume
efforts to acquire nuclear energy. The proposed $2 billion nuclear project
was discussed during the annual conference of the ruling National Democratic
Party last week.
"We must take more advantage of new and renewable energy sources,
including the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and I call for a serious
dialogue which takes into account the clean and cheap sources of energy
available through nuclear technologies," the president said on Sept. 21. "We
do not start from a vacuum, and we possess a knowledge of these techniques
which enables us to proceed."
Egyptian sources said the latest plan marked a smaller scale effort by
the Electricity Ministry than that drafted in 2002. In 2002, the ministry
sought to acquire eight nuclear reactors. The project was quietly dropped
two years later.
In the latest plan, the Electricity Ministry would acquire the three
nuclear energy facilities by 2027. Each of the reactors would generate at
least 600 megawatts of electricity. The Al Masri Al Yom daily said the
nuclear facilities would be completed by 2020.