Egypt is taking its first steps towards reviving its national nuclear power programme for peaceful purposes, Sherine Nasr reports Egypt's Atomic Energy Authority signed a 10-year, LE900 million contract with Australian Worley Parsons as the consultancy firm for the first nuclear power plant in Egypt. Egypt's nuclear energy programme for peaceful purposes is revived again after a 20-year freeze following the infamous Chernobyl plant accident. "Egypt is keen on diversifying its future energy sources to be able to become one of the main energy producers in the Middle East," said Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif after the signing ceremony. The Australian company will update studies on the Al-Dabaa site on the Mediterranean coast, 220 kilometres north of Cairo, which for decades came top of the list of sites to accommodate the future nuclear power plant. Studies will also include other potential sites across the country, including Safaga on the Red Sea coast. According to a cabinet statement that was released after the contract was signed, this national project will be implemented in two stages; the first stage will update studies on proposed locations for the future power station; the second stage will include evaluating and revising designs submitted by the contractor, running necessary tests during the various stages of construction until the power plant is finally linked to the national power grid, and examining abidance by quality codes throughout different implementation stages. On 29 May, Egypt started to assess the tender papers of some 21 international consultancy firms that stepped forward to build Egypt's first nuclear plant. Worley Parsons came in after talks with first candidate, Bechtel, came to a deadlock. In October 2007, President Hosni Mubarak announced that Egypt is planning to build several nuclear power stations as part of a national policy to provide for ever-increasing energy demands and to diversify the country's energy resources. Egypt's initiative received a warm welcome by the international community and many countries offered support, including Russia, the EU and China. Energy sources in Egypt are quite diversified: electricity, petroleum, and natural gas in addition to new and renewable energy, mostly coming from solar and wind energy. In the future, Egypt is planning to establish electronuclear stations so as to produce electricity via nuclear energy. Egypt now enjoys an extended electric network that provides for at least 99.3 per cent of the Egyptian population. According to statistics released by the Ministry of Electricity, generated capacities reached around 22.025 Mega Watts (MW) during 2006-07, with an annual increase of about 1475 MW. Moreover, the country is aiming at using renewable energy to produce at least 20 per cent of its total energy demands by 2020. A solar energy generator station was built at Al-Kuraimat, south of Cairo, at a capacity of 150 MW. In the meantime, wind stations of different capacities have been established in Zaafarana, Al-Zayat Mountain and Sharm El-Sheikh on the Red Sea coast. Produced capacity until 2010 will reach 850 MW, which will represent three per cent of total electricity demand in Egypt.
