The first Egyptian Mission for Nuclear Stations is to head to Russia mid this month, to receive training on the  operation of the Egyptian Nuclear Programme. Others working at the nuclear facilities will receive training in Korea, US, France and China.

Egypt Electricity and Energy Minister,  Dr. Hassan Younis said that the coming months will witness  intensified measures to establish the first Nuclear Station.   Nuclear Facilities personnel will be trained in the latest techniques.  It is hoped that the first international tender will be issued before the end of this year, so that the nuclear station can be established.

Egypt, said in March, that it planned to build four plants by 2025 and inaugurate the first in 2019.  This is in an effort to reduce the most populous Arab country's reliance on oil and gas. Officials hope that the programme will add a capacity of up to 4,000 megawatts.

"The U.N. Nuclear Watchdog is ready to co-operate with plans to build Nuclear Power Plants in Egypt, which is now working on locations for construction", the head of the U.N. Body said

"The IAEA is very happy to co-operate with Egypt in its Project for introducing Nuclear Power. Now , Egypt is finalizing its plan of choosing the site for its Nuclear Plant," Yukiya Amano, Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency told Reuters.

Egypt, with 78 million people,, has signed a Nuclear Power Consultancy Deal with Australia's Worley Parsons.

The deal, reached last year, includes looking for potential locations and updating studies of the Dabaa site on the Mediterranean coast, where Egypt planned to build a Power Station in the 1980s.

Egypt has long pressed for making the Middle East a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone and backed plans for a U.N. Sponsored Conference for Middle East states in 2012 on the issue.

President Hosni Mubarak declared in 2007, that Egypt was ready to relaunch its Nuclear Energy Programme, which started with the Soviet Union in 1961. However, it was frozen following the 1986 Nuclear Disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine.

Global Arab Network

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