The American firm Bechtel Power has won a 10-year contract worth $180 million to consult to Egypt on the construction of the country’s first nuclear power plant, according to the business newsletter yourindustrynews.com.
Additional consultations will be held before the signing of the contract as Bechtel is also preparing to bid on a separate tender for the construction of the power station. No date has been mentioned so far as to the start of construction, which will be built in the city A-‘Dab’a on the Mediterranean Sea coast.
Almost two years have passed since Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced the plans to build a plant.
In October 2007, Mubarak decided to relaunch the country’s nuclear program initially started in 1954. Egypt acquired its first nuclear reactor from the Soviet Union in 1963; the small reactor was placed at Insha’s in the Nile Delta. The spent fuel was controlled by the Soviets.
Much of today’s standoff between the U.S. and Iran is related to the usage of nuclear fuel waste, since it can be used to produce materiel needed for nuclear weapons.
The Egyptian program was frozen in 1986 after the disaster at the Ukrainian city Chernobyl. In 1981, Egypt signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which allows countries to build nuclear power stations under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Association.
However, it has not signed a voluntary additional protocol to the NPT that would allow more intrusive inspections, arguing it could make it too dependent on other countries for its nuclear energy needs.