WHENEVER anyone suggests making greater use of solar energy in Egypt, someone else always says that it's far more expensive than traditional sources of energy. However, no-one complains about Egypt's nuclear project, which is bound to be a tremendous financial burden on an already indebted Treasury. This is because many officials play on the nation's emotions and our desire to compete with other regional countries in the race for nuclear technology. Of course, developing nuclear weapons in Egypt is out of the question, not only because we are committed to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but also because Egypt has constantly been calling for a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction. Egypt's nuclear project will only be for peaceful purposes. We're not going to develop atomic weapons, even though the world powers are happy for our neighbour, Israel, to possess a huge nuclear arsenal. It's strange that the International Atomic Energy Agency has never questioned Israel about its nuclear arsenal or even inspected it. Anyway, before launching this costly and potentially dangerous project, Egypt should carefully debate its advantages and disadvantages. Nuclear technology isn't 100 per cent safe, while many developed countries are planning to dismantle their nuclear projects and increase their dependence on other renewable clean source of energy, for example wind and tidal energy from the sea in Germany's case. We could follow suit with solar energy. Another problem is the safe dumping of nuclear waste, especially as we've already had problems getting rid of our medical waste. The semi-official newspaper Al-Akhbar recently published a story about the French company in charge of garbage collection in Alexandria Governorate failing to collect medical waste from hospitals and clinics. Every day, around 3 tonnes of this harmful waste are recycled by unlicensed local factories, to make household utensils and children's toys. So let's handle our energy projects with care.
