CAIRO - The Government has decided to receive international bids for building Egypt's first nuclear energy plant after the next presidential polls, Electricity Minister Hassan Younis said in press remarks published. "Egypt will start receiving the tenders after the presidential polls," Younis told the independent newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm. He said that the Government has reached this decision due to the present political circumstances after lengthy negotiations with many local agencies concerned. Younis said that the Ministry has invited several firms for consultancy and project briefings. "The Government was also looking to Japanese firms, which have briefed Egyptian energy officials on Japanese nuclear power plant technology and design," he told the paper. Two years ago, Egypt signed a deal with Australia's Worley Parsons for a nuclear power consultancy. The firm has helped the Government look into potential locations for the plant, including updating studies on the Dabaa site on the Mediterranean coast, where Egypt planned to build a power station in the 1980s. Younis said the studies had concluded that Dabaa was the most suitable location. "The project takes 8 to 10 years for such projects to bear fruit in developing countries and 12 to 15 in countries where nuclear projects are being set up for the first time," he added. Egypt is aiming to shift away from oil and gas to other sources and has said it wants to build four nuclear power plants by 2025, with the first to start operating in 2019. Officials hope the new nuclear programme will add capacity of up to 4,000 megawatts by 2025.
