By deciding to construct eight nuclear power plants, the government went some ways towards increasing energy sources but tenders, funding and training are issues unresolved, reports Doaa El-Bey The tender for the country's first 1,000MW nuclear energy plant was to have started before the end of 2010 but the Ministry of Electricity and Energy decided on 19 December to postpone the bidding for a few weeks after a review by the State Council is completed. In the meantime, the dispute over Al-Dabaa as the site of the first nuclear station was settled, after which came the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declaration that it would assist Egypt in its nuclear programme. Al-Dabaa, located between Marsa Matrouh and Alexandria on 60 square kilometres, was chosen in the 1980s to be the site of the first nuclear plant. However, a dispute emerged this year between businessmen and the backers of the Al-Dabaa venue over the possible use of the site as a tourist resort. The row was settled when supporters of the nuclear programme appealed directly to President Hosni Mubarak not to allow business interests to affect the issue. While inaugurating the new parliament earlier this month, Mubarak said his country was going ahead with a peaceful nuclear programme, confirming that it would be in Al-Dabaa. He said the national plan for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy had become part of Egypt's strategy of comprehensive energy and an important pillar of a policy of diversifying sources and securing supplies. The first station will cost $1.5 billion and will generate some 1,000MW, to be operational by 2019. Three additional nuclear plants will be built in Al-Dabaa and are expected to be ready by 2025. The four plants will produce 4,000MW. IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano, meanwhile, said earlier this year the agency was ready to cooperate with Egypt to build nuclear power stations. Amano had proposed to send a mission to Egypt to help with the country's projects. The world is looking for variable, clean and renewable sources of energy and the Egyptian government no longer has other options except nuclear power to meet the country's electricity needs, said Sayed Bahieddin, the former chairman of the Nuclear Power Plants Authority, in a seminar on nuclear power in Egypt. "Other clean and renewable sources like the sun and the wind are not as reliable as nuclear power. Solar power is expensive and there is no technology to store it. It is also difficult to depend on the wind as a main source of energy because one cannot predict its strength and time," Bahieddin added. However, there are problems ahead of the nuclear project, mainly training the personnel needed to run the nuclear stations. Egypt signed agreements with Australia, Great Britain and India to provide assistance in training personnel for scientific research and work on the country's nuclear programme. Bahieddin said that at present "we do not have the personnel needed to run the stations. We need time, effort, management and money. We first need to choose the suitable people. We need some 400-500 plant workers and some 200-300 engineers to run the station. Once they are properly selected, it is not impossible to train them to run the station by 2019." Finding adequate funding for the multi-billion dollar nuclear project is likely to be another important issue. A number of banks from Egypt, the Arab world and Europe proposed to fund the project should they be able to reach a deal with the government. Meanwhile, a ministerial committee charged with studying the Al-Dabaa project is expected to explore three financing options, the first being that the Egyptian government provides the money from its own resources. The second would feature government partnership with the private sector while the third would present funding offers from firms who are competing to supply components of the nuclear station. Egypt's nuclear plans date back to the 1950s when then president Gamal Abdel-Nasser was keen to introduce nuclear energy. He established the Egyptian Energy Institution which conducted research and sought out experts. In the early 60s, officials started thinking of using nuclear energy for generating electricity and desalinating water. But the 1967 and 1973 wars ditched all such ideas. Talk of using nuclear energy was revived in the mid-1970s and some tangible steps were taken towards using nuclear energy, but were suspended in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. The programme was again revived in late 2006 and 2007 when the government announced plans for a three-to- four reactor programme, with the first to be operational within 10 years. In the first sign of what looked like progress, a US company won the tender in consultancy services for the country's first nuclear station in 2008, however, the deal soon collapsed in an apparent dispute over money. The company was subsequently replaced in 2009 by an Australian firm tasked with plant site and technology selection and organising tenders for constructing the country's first nuclear energy plant. The contract includes mandating the company's role in the development of related education programmes at Egyptian institutions to make up for what is a serious shortage of nuclear scientists, engineers and other potential plant workers. The same company will also prepare five potential sites for future nuclear plants, including Safaga, Hamam Firaon and Al-Negila. Since Egypt's 2006 declaration to pursue nuclear plants, other Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, have announced similar intentions. Kuwait also recently expressed interest in drawing up a nuclear plan of its own.
