Mubarak says Egypt to build nuclear power stations

Egypt will build several civilian nuclear power stations to meet its growing energy needs, President Hosni Mubarak said on Monday, but did not indicate when the programme would get under way. The president made the announcement a few days ahead of the annual congress of his ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and a year after his politician son floated the idea of a peaceful nuclear programme. Mubarak did not say how much the programme would cost or how funding would be secured.

"We have to face the fact that oil and gas in the end are non-renewable energy sources," Mubarak said in a speech after inaugurating an electricity station north of Cairo. "And we also have to admit that we are facing a great challenge to meet increasing consumption." Washington voiced support of Egypt's plans to develop peaceful nuclear energy a year ago after the idea was floated by Gamal Mubarak and then taken up by the president. China, Russia and Kazakhstan have also offered cooperation.

Gamal's initial proposal had been greeted with scepticism by opposition groups, which dismissed his announcement as a media stunt designed to bolster his political credentials. Officials put Egypt's oil and gas reserves at 15.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent, enough for 34 years at current production rates.

The elder Mubarak said rising oil prices would nudge the government's energy subsidies higher to around 50 billion Egyptian pounds ($9 billion) in the current fiscal year starting in July, from 43.8 billion pounds in the previous year. The 79-year-old president, in power since 1981, is widely believed to be preparing Gamal, a senior ruling party official, to succeed him. Both father and son deny this.

Political analyst Mustafa Kamel el-Sayyed said the plans to develop nuclear energy appeared serious, partly to show that the younger Mubarak has made good on his proposal as he prepares for another party congress. But he said the government's intent could be gauged more accurately when it presents a new budget in 2008, and he was watching to see if allocations would be made for the programme. "Otherwise it will be sheer propaganda," he added.

Cairo suspended a peaceful nuclear programme after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies said the first 1,000-megawatt reactor could be built at Dabaa on the Mediterranean in eight to 10 years if foreign investment is secured.

Egypt ratified the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1981 and has two research reactors. The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) probed "failures" in reporting nuclear research in 2004, but concluded that the experiments were not weapons-related.

The president said Egypt would cooperate with the IAEA and other international partners on its plans "in a framework of transparency and respect to our commitment according to the non-proliferation system".