Egypt to build nuclear power stations
Egypt, Politics, 10/30/2007

In a strategic step, the first one of its kind in Egypt's modern history, President Hosni Mubarak yesterday announced "launching a program for building a number of nuclear stations for generating electricity."

The Egypt State Information Service said that Mubarak said "under this decision, peaceful use of nuclear energy will become part of the national energy strategy and its future march. The President said he has taken this decision out of his position as President of the Republic, in the light of the national and international challenges which are imposed by developments in the status of energy and the record increase in oil prices."

The agency added that Mubarak "said peaceful use of nuclear energy is not the monopoly of some one adding, we are not starting from scratch, as we have had our nuclear program in the 1950s and possess cadres and technology which qualify us for reactivating this program. The President said he will issue a republican decree in the coming few days reappointing the higher council on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, calling on the government to offer a bill organizing the relationship between bodies concerned with the peaceful use of nuclear energy...He also asked the government to support the nuclear monitoring agency, to develop human resources in this field and to restructure the relevant bodies and agencies Egypt is possessing."

Meantime, the Egyptian agency reported that "Egypt's permanent delegate to the UN Ambassador Maged Abdel-Fattah told the General Assembly on October 29 that unless Israel joins the NPT comprehensive safeguards agreements, an arms race awaits the Middle East region, thus threatens its security and stability. Proceeding from this spirit, Ambassador Abdel-Fattah called for the implementation of the NPT comprehensive safeguards agreements on a global scale, noting that all Middle Eastern states, except Israel, have joined the safeguards system. He affirmed that the role played by the international community vis-à-vis press reports about Israel's possession of nuclear weapons remains central to the effectiveness of the nuclear non-proliferation regime in the Middle East."

It is not clear why Egypt anticipates an arms race, and if this is an effort by Egypt to add further pressure on the USA to halt Iranian peaceful nuclear program by threatening to have one of its own, and this can be used as an excuse by the USA that now "every one wants to emulate Iran", or if Egypt truly wants to built nuclear energy because of the expected tight future energy demands and costs, or because of the real concerns Egypt has had over the years from Israel's nuclear arsenal.

Previous Stories:
  Egyptian French summit on Middle East issues   (4/16/2007)
  Environment, energy, tourism Egypt Bahrain cooperation   (4/9/2007)
  Mubarak and Rice discuss peace proposal   (3/26/2007)

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