CAIRO - As politicians in Cairo were busy last week forging alliances for the new parliament, villagers in the remote desert town of Mersa Matrouh had another task on their hands. They decided to destroy the country's nuclear power station, under construction on the Mediterranean coast. And they succeeded. As lawlessness is the order of the day in several parts of the nation, Al-Dabaa, the site of the plant, has emerged as the latest grim example. Dozens of angry villagers attacked the facilities of Al-Dabaa station, which was planned to house four nuclear power plants and a research centre. The attackers were bent on destroying the station and retaking the land of the site, which they say the authorities unfairly expropriated in the era of former president Hosni Mubarak. For several days, the protesters were engaged in fierce fighting with security and military forces guarding the station that was being built on 50 square kilometres of land. The assailants made headway as the forces inexplicably retreated. After much acrimonious controversy, Al-Dabaa was chosen by the Mubarak Government to be the launching pad for an ambitious nuclear programme. Now that Al-Dabaa station has been reduced to a pile of rubble and twisted metal in the absence of the State authorities, the villagers there have started building their own homes on what they contend is their land. They have lost no time at all in doing so, despite media claims that there are lethal dangers posed by the theft of radioactive material from the destroyed site. Scrap metal dealers are, meanwhile, scavenging the place for anything recyclable. Amid the mayhem that accompanied the attack on the station, it may be the right time to have a rethink on the costly plan for Egypt to go nuclear. In recent years, a huge amount of public money has been squandered on mega-projects that later proved to be white elephants. In the late 1990s, the Government poured a fortune into Toshka, an area in southwest Egypt, with the declared aim of building a new valley. Before long, the project proved to be a big failure, with the opposition blaming poor planning and conflict of interests for this national scandal. Should this be the case with the much-hyped nuclear programme, the bill to be footed by the nation would arguably be higher. It is not only a matter of money. There may be potential nuclear hazards too. Several advanced countries have reconsidered their N-plans after a radiation leak in an earthquake-crippled nuclear reactor in Japan last year. Being rich in sun and wind, Egypt does not have to run the risk of generating nuclear energy to meet its increasing local needs for electricity. Last week's violent protests in Al-Dabaa may be another reason to abandon this perilous ambition.
