Egypt to Begin Building Nuclear Power Reactors

Egypt plans to build domestic nuclear power plants quickly, with the first coming into operation within 10 years, a top official said yesterday.  Cairo’s plans were first revealed last week when President Hosni Mubarak and his son Gamal each mentioned the nuclear possibility at a ruling party meeting (see GSN, Sept 21).

Electricity Minister Hassan Younes said the nation’s Supreme Council of Energy would meet soon to endorse the nuclear option, the state-owned al-Ahram newspaper reported. 

Mubarak’s cabinet has also created a ministerial committee to “speed up implementing the nuclear alternative,” said government spokesman Magdi Radhi.  “This is an urgent matter.”

Egypt would erect its first power plant at El-Dabaa on the Mediterranean coast, said Younes.  The 1,100-megawatt station would cost $1.5 billion, he added.

By 2020, Egypt plans to construct three plants generating a total of 1,800 megawatts, according to the al-Masry al-Youm newspaper (Salah Nasrawi, Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Sept. 24).

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