IAEA approves site for Egypt’s first nuclear plant

Cairo, Sep 18 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The UN nuclear watchdog IAEA has approved an Egyptian site to host the country’s first nuclear power plant.

The site in El Dabaa is about 295 km from Cairo, and corresponds to all international requirements, IAEA experts said Saturday.

Egypt is set to construct four nuclear power reactors by 2025, with the first of them to be put into operation in 2019.

The north African state’s nuclear programme was originally suspended after the Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet Union in 1986.

Egypt is expected to announce the tender for the construction of the nuclear power plant by the end of the year. Russia is ready to offer its vast experience, its high-technology solutions and financial assistance to the project.

In March 2008, during Egyptian president’s visit to Moscow, both countries signed an agreement on cooperation in the civilian nuclear sector. The document stipulates Russia’s right to participate in tenders to build nuclear power facilities in Egypt.

In 2009, the Egyptian authorities officially invited Russia to participate in a tender to build Egypt’s first nuclear power plant.

Egypt, which possesses large reserves of uranium ore, has two experimental nuclear reactors, one constructed in 1958 by the Soviet Union and the other bought from Argentina.

–IANS/RIA Novosti