Egypt Restarts Plan To Build First Nuclear Power Plant

 Fumnanya Agbugah Business, Energy

 

VENTURES AFRICA – Egypt is set to launch a tender as it restarts plan to build its first nuclear power plant which is expected to boost the national capacity to generate power, state owned Al Ahram Newspaper reports.
The report, which was published recently, added that the tender will hold at the end of the year and will be open to foreign companies. However, it was not specified if the bid will be open to only a select group of companies or all interested firms.
Egypt’s Nuclear Energy Adviser to the Ministry of Electricity, Ibrahim El-Osery told Daily News Egypt that “One of the conditions for the tender is that whoever wins will take the responsibility of financing the project till it is implemented,” El-Osery added that the implementation expenses will be paid by Egypt after the operation starts and the amount Egypt will save from using nuclear energy as opposed to conventional energy will be used to pay for the project.

The plant, located at Dabaa on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, is planned to have two stations. One will generate 1600MW of electricity while the other 900MW. The power generated will be used to boost the electricity demand of the country which has regularly experienced blackouts over recent years due to fuel shortages. According to 2011 data by Trading Economics, Egypt’s electricity production is estimated at 156.6billionKwh.
Rosatom, a Russian based nuclear corporation is reportedly in talks with the Egyptian government with regards to building nuclear infrastructures for the Dabaa power plant.
The Dabaa nuclear power plant was begun by former president Hosni Mubarak. However it was halted due to disputes with local residents, who accused the state of confiscating their land by force and without proper compensation. In January 2012, the locals stormed the nuclear site and shut down construction, refusing to surrender to military police. Low radioactive sources were also looted from the location, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. But in 2013 they peacefully relinquished the site to the Egyptian Armed Forces who promised to compensate those affected by the project.
According to Al-Ahram, in May this year, the Egyptian Army Corps of Engineers started a project to complete the rehabilitation of the plant’s infrastructure. The project which is expected to be completed by September this year includes building of administrative block, storage units, laboratories, workshops and water and electricity utilities.