[NukeNet] Egypt To Build Nuke Plant

[Bill Smirnow]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Egypt-Nuclear.html?scp=3&sq=nuclear&st=nyt

 Egypt Takes Offers for Nuclear Project

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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 26, 2008
Filed at 8:10 p.m. ET

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Egypt will begin taking bids in February to build the
country's first nuclear reactor, the state-run news agency reported
Saturday.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced plans for the nuclear power
project last year, saying it would diversify Egypt's energy resources and
preserve the country's oil and gas. He said the reactor would be for
peaceful, power-generating purposes only and that Egypt would not seek a
nuclear bomb.

The project is expected to cost between $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion.

''The type of reactor and its constructor will be chosen according to
international safety standards and reputation as well as costs,'' MENA
quoted Abdel Mohsen Morsi Metwalli, director of nuclear engineering at
Alexandria University, as saying. ''The offer is open to all countries.''

After Mubarak's announcement in October, State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack said the United States would not object to the program as long as
Egypt adhered to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and International
Atomic Energy Agency guidelines.

Earlier this month, Egypt said it plans to build the reactor at El-Dabaa on
the Mediterranean coast west of Alexandria. Electricity Minister Hassan
Yunis has said the project could take 10 years to develop.

During a December visit to Egypt, French President Nicholas Sarkozy
expressed France's willingness to assist Egypt in the nuclear field.

Egypt has conducted nuclear experiments for research purposes on a very
small scale for the past four decades at a reactor northeast of Cairo, but
they have not included the key process of uranium enrichment, the IAEA says.