Egypt declared on Wednesday it would build its planned nuclear powerplant on the Mediterranean coast of el-Dabaa which it hopes will commence production in 2019, the state news agency MENA reported. Presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad said President Hosni Mubarak had decided in a meeting that the reactor would be located in el-Dabaa, on the coast west of the port city of Alexandria. Dabaa has been recommended as the site by an international consulting firm.
The meeting was "extremely important and represents a transition on the path to implement a strategic programme to ensure power supplies and peaceful uses for nuclear energy," the news agency quoted Awad as saying.
An electricity and energy ministry spokesman said the government hopes the powerplant would be linked to the national grid in 2019. According to him, the ministry would open an international tender for the plant which will be decided by the end of this year.
Electricity minister Hassan Younis had earlier estimated it would cost about US$4 billion for a 1,000 megawatt powerplant.
In the past weeks, Egypt has been suffering from a shortage in electrical supply.
