Egypt launches nuclear power program

President Hosni Mubarak said that Egypt is to build several nuclear power stations, relaunching a nuclear program frozen more than 20 years ago.

Mubarak said a decree would be issued in a few days' time to establish a higher council for the peaceful use of nuclear energy, the official MENA news agency reported.

Mubarak said the program will be developed in cooperation with the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "within a framework of transparency and respect of commitments to the nuclear non-proliferation system."

Egypt initiated a nuclear energy program in the 1970s but abandoned it in 1986 after the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. Mubarak's regime recently outlined plans to revive it.

The 79-year-old president did not say which countries would cooperate in the construction of the power stations, nor how many were planned, but last year he discussed nuclear cooperation during visits to Russia and China.

Egypt has sought to reassure the international community by insisting that it will not import enriched uranium, amid tensions over the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea. More...