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"* Egypt wants to build four nuclear plants by 2025 * Cairo backed 2012 conference on WMD-free Middle East The U.N. nuclear watchdog is ready to cooperate 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 on Tuesday. Egypt said in March it planned to build four plants by 2025 and inaugurate the first in 2019 in an effort to reduce the most populous Arab country's reliance on oil and gas. Officials hope the programme would add capacity of up to 4,000 megawatts."

"Egypt will not enjoy its sovereignty unless it has the strength to implement a just peace, and therefore developing a nuclear program is part of national security," says Dr. Rashad Al-Qubaisi, the former head of the International Center for Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations and the person responsible for preparing a report on establishing a nuclear reactor in Egypt. "I am of the opinion that possessing an atom bomb is essential if you want to enjoy power and sovereignty. I will not forget what the Indian ambassador said to me when we discovered that India was holding nuclear experiments in 1997 - 'Our national security is more important to us than water or food.'" Qubaisi, who criticizes the Egyptian government for not approving nuclear supervision in its territory, says no country in the region, including Israel, has conducted nuclear experiments because they are so simple to trace. "Israel conducts its experiments via computer simulations - impossible to detect," he says.

"Egypt will not enjoy its sovereignty unless it has the strength to implement a just peace, and therefore developing a nuclear program is part of national security," says Dr. Rashad Al-Qubaisi, the former head of the International Center for Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations and the person responsible for preparing a report on establishing a nuclear reactor in Egypt. "I am of the opinion that possessing an atom bomb is essential if you want to enjoy power and sovereignty. I will not forget what the Indian ambassador said to me when we discovered that India was holding nuclear experiments in 1997 - 'Our national security is more important to us than water or food.'" Qubaisi, who criticizes the Egyptian government for not approving nuclear supervision in its territory, says no country in the region, including Israel, has conducted nuclear experiments because they are so simple to trace. "Israel conducts its experiments via computer simulations - impossible to detect," he says.

"Russia intends to take part in a tender to build a nuclear power plant in Egypt within the framework of developing cooperation in the country's nuclear power sector, the Russian industry and trade minister said. Egypt is set to construct four nuclear power reactors by 2025, with the first of them to be put into operation in 2019. "In this regard we [Russia] as well as other participants are preparing for the tender," Viktor Khristenko said at a news conference in Cairo. Egypt is expected to announce the tender for the construction of the nuclear power plant by the end of the year."

"Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Tuesday his country will not stop its calls on Israel to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and submit its facilities to international observation. Following a meeting here with Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano, Abul Gheit said his country will press ahead with its calls for submitting all Israeli nuclear facilities to international observation, state- run MENA news agency reported. "I can not imagine any one in Egypt would say that we stop calls for submitting Israeli facilities to the observation of international society represented in the IAEA," he said. Meanwhile, Abul Gheit said his meeting with Amano also touched upon ways the international watchdog could help Egypt to carry out its peaceful nuclear program."

EL-ARISH, Egypt (AFP) - Egypt has sent back to Israel a delivery of 32 tonnes of tiles that was emitting high levels of radiation, a security official told AFP on Monday. Authorities seized the truckload of tiles on Friday after it crossed into the Sinai from Israel via a crossing near the Gaza Strip. They detected the radiation and called in nuclear experts to examine the vehicle.

Australia's WorleyParsons signed on Thursday a nuclear power plant consultancy contract with Egypt worth 896 million Egyptian pounds, Egyptian Electricity Minister Hassan Younes said. WorleyParsons won the contract after talks with initial favourite U.S.-based Bechtel Power Corp stalled. The company had come in second after Bechtel in the tender held by Egypt to pick a consultant for its first nuclear power plant.

Egypt has refused to allow entry to an Israeli truck carrying 3.5 ton of ceramics after high radiation levels were detected in the shipment. Egyptian officials seized the goods at the Al-Oja border crossing after radiation detection equipment showed a high presence of radioactive material in the cargo, a security official told AFP.

Egypt will invite Australia's WorleyParsons to negotiate terms for a nuclear power plant consultancy after talks with tender-winner Bechtel Power Corp stalled, state news agency MENA said on Sunday. WorleyParsons had come in second to U.S.-based Bechtel Power Corp in a tender by Egypt's ministry of electricity and energy to consult on the country's first nuclear power plant, a ministry official said in remarks cited by MENA. The agency gave no reason for why talks with Bechtel had foundered.

"Egypt will build its first nuclear power plant in the Mediterranean coastal town of El-Dabaa, reviving the country's civilian nuclear power program after more than two decades, the El-Ahram newspaper said on Monday. Egyptian authorities announced in 2007 plans to build nuclear power facilities in the country to meet the increasing demand for electricity. The north African state's nuclear program was originally suspended after the Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet Union in 1986. The paper quoted Egyptian energy minister Hassan Younes as saying the construction of the country's first nuclear power plant would take about 9 years. He said the decision to build the plant in El-Dabaa was based on a report by a team of international experts. The minister was quoted as saying the construction would cost from $1.5 to $2 billion. Russia, the U.S., China and the European Union support Egypt's peaceful nuclear program and have offered their assistance to the country's government."

"US officials are in talks with Egypt over a plan to make the Middle East a nuclear-free zone, part of an effort to block the Iranian nuclear program, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said the White House wanted to build on a non-binding agreement that emerged from a 1995 UN review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). That agreement had designated the region as a zone free of weapons of mass destruction: the aim now was to promote a Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone, which would include Israel, the Arab states, Iran and Turkey. The US administration was also seeking a conference on the subject."

"Egypt and the United States were Tuesday trying to work out a compromise at the United Nations to start talks on a Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone, diplomats said. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had Monday told the conference on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty being held here that the United States is "prepared to support practical measures" towards "the objective of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction." Egyptian ambassador Hisham Badr on Tuesday told the some 150 nations at the three-week-long NPT meeting that the review conference should support taking "concrete and practical steps" for "the establishment of a Middle Eastern zone free of nuclear weapons, as well as other weapons of mass destruction.""

The nuclear power industry has been accused of trying to muscle in on plans to establish a global body to represent the renewable energy industry at a key meeting in Egypt tomorrow. France - a major user and exporter of nuclear technologies - is accused by critics of trying to win the top job inside the renewable organisation so it can move the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) towards being a promoter of "low-carbon" technologies - including atomic power. The talks in Sharm el-Sheikh are already threatening to become a major standoff between Germany and the United Arab Emirates over which country should win the right to have the headquarters of Irena based in its country.

The Marshall Islands has become the 151st state to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, according to a press release issued today (see GSN, Oct. 9). The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization called the Oct. 28 move "highly symbolic." The United States from 1946 to 1958 conducted 67 nuclear test blasts in the atmosphere above the Marshall Islands' Bikini and Enewetak atolls. The treaty to date has been signed by 182 nations and ratified by 151 countries. In the Pacific islands region, 12 states have signed and 10 countries have ratified the treaty. Niue, Tonga and Tuvalu have yet to join the list of signatories. Before it can enter it to force, the treaty must be ratified by the 44 "Annex 2" countries. There are nine holdouts -- China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the United States.

The Marshall Islands has become the 151st state to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, according to a press release issued today (see GSN, Oct. 9). The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization called the Oct. 28 move "highly symbolic." The United States from 1946 to 1958 conducted 67 nuclear test blasts in the atmosphere above the Marshall Islands' Bikini and Enewetak atolls. The treaty to date has been signed by 182 nations and ratified by 151 countries. In the Pacific islands region, 12 states have signed and 10 countries have ratified the treaty. Niue, Tonga and Tuvalu have yet to join the list of signatories. Before it can enter it to force, the treaty must be ratified by the 44 "Annex 2" countries. There are nine holdouts -- China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the United States.

Despite long-standing public concern about the safety of nuclear energy, more and more people are realizing that it may be the most environmentally friendly way to generate large amounts of electricity. Several nations, including Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, India, Japan, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam, are building or planning nuclear plants. But this global trend has not as yet extended to the U.S., where work on the last such facility began some 30 years ago. If developed sensibly, nuclear power could be truly sustainable and essentially inexhaustible and could operate without contributing to climate change. In particular, a relatively new form of nuclear technology could overcome the principal drawbacks of current methods-namely, worries about reactor accidents, the potential for diversion of nuclear fuel into highly destructive weapons, the management of dangerous, long-lived radioactive waste, and the depletion of global reserves of economically available uranium. This nuclear fuel cycle would combine two innovations: pyrometallurgical processing (a high-temperature method of recycling reactor waste into fuel) and advanced fast-neutron reactors capable of burning that fuel. With this approach, the radioactivity from the generated waste could drop to safe levels in a few hundred years, thereby eliminating the need to segregate waste for tens of thousands of years.

U.S.-based Bechtel Power Corp is leading a shortlist of firms and consortia bidding to design Egypt's first nuclear power station, an official at the ministry of electricity said. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the other firms on the shortlist included Australia's WorleyParsons, Sweden's AF Consult, a consortium of Spain's Iberdrola and Empresarios Agrupados, a consortium of Finland's Poyry and Invap of Argentina, a consortium including Belgian Tractebel, and a group of U.S. companies with Egypt's Excel.