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North Korea keeps shooting its long range missiles now and then. These missiles do not just reach all important targets; they can also deliver a nuclear message. Its leaders, or rather leader, has effectively made the world believe that he is unpredictable, that one day he could really strike American or South Korean targets. Japan, Russia and China are all concerned, but not as badly as the other two countries. He has the gun; he seems to have the will to use it. The missing element is the excuse. (Of course, the other side of the argument is that he is already using them and reaping the benefits at least from the immediate south.) Now there are many of us who think that we are too far away or too detached to be concerned about this issue.

A U.S. official says dialogue about a global ban on nuclear blasts is under way in Washington. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty outlawing all nuclear explosions will only enter into force once adopted by the 44 states that participated in a 1996 disarmament conference and possessed nuclear power or research reactors at the time. So far 35 have ratified the document, excluding the United States. The U.S. Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration chief Thomas D'Agostino said Tuesday: "everyone is talking about what it takes" but acknowledged opinions were split. Other holdouts include China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea and Pakistan. On the Net: * http://www.ctbto.org/

The cool waters of the Mediterranean swell gently against El-Daba'a's deserted shoreline. About halfway between Alexandria and Marsa Matruh on the North Coast, the more than 100 kilometer-stretch of white sand and vibrant coral reef would be considered prime property for tourism development, if not for the fact it has been selected as one of five possible sites for Egypt's first nuclear power plant. The nuclear project could also constitute a first for the region, aside from Israel. Planning for the 1,200-megawatt project, set for completion in 10 years time, is well underway, according to the plant's official consultant, global engineering firm WorleyParsons. The Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA), a division of the Ministry of Electricity and Energy, awarded WorleyParsons the LE 900 million consulting contract two months ago. The parties signed the contract June 18, more than 50 years after Egypt's nuclear program was established.

Egypt may be the focus of Russia's attempt to sell its nuclear wares abroad. But Egypt's neighbours are also desperate to acquire atomic energy, with the UAE and Jordan also looking at ways of developing the technology. Despite Western calls for non-proliferation in the Middle East - with fear that Iran's acquisition of a nuclear bomb could trigger an arms race - Britain, France and the US are among the countries helping to supply the know-how and material for nuclear reactors. In the UAE, the US signed a deal to develop a nuclear reactor on the understanding that the country, which has strong trade ties with Iran, will not produce its own nuclear fuels. Britain signed an agreement with Jordan, Israel's energy-poor neighbour.

Efforts by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to keep countries from acquiring nuclear technology by offering them alternatives got a boost this week as three plans for nuclear fuel banks and multinational fuel factories were tabled. The latest proposal was put forward by Germany on Friday. The text foresees the creation of an internationally-governed nuclear fuel production plant. Two additional, complementary, proposals for Russian and IAEA fuel banks to provide supply of last resort are also to be considered by the 35 countries on the IAEA's governing board in June. The ideas were proposed by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei in 2003 to keep countries such as Iran from acquiring uranium enrichment and reprocessing technologies, which can be used not only for energy purposes, but also for making nuclear bomb material. But diplomats say the Vienna-based nuclear agency is split on the issue between those countries that already hold the technology, and sceptical countries such as Egypt, Argentina and Brazil, many of them developing economies.

"Nuclear knowledge, nuclear technology and the corresponding delivery systems are now more easily available internationally than ever before. This favors the nuclear ambitions of states that see their security at risk and that have ambitions to become regional powers. If they were to get nuclear weapons, this would then trigger a chain reaction among their neighbors, who would feel threatened by those arms. For example, a nuclear-armed Iran would raise for the Arab states the question of an "Arab bomb," given that the main non-Arab actors in the region -- Israel, Iran and the US -- would all have nuclear weapons under this scenario. Large states like Egypt or Saudi Arabia might therefore want to join the club. "

"The road to a nuclear weapons-free world is apparently paved with good intentions - but littered with plenty of platitudes and empty promises. A month-long nuclear non-proliferation review conference concluded late Friday "with more of a whimper than a bang", said John Burroughs, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy. "The result was disappointing without being surprising," he said. However, said Burroughs, one concrete achievement was on a make-or-break issue: a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East. The final document, he pointed out, calls for a conference on this controversial subject in 2012, and the appointment of a facilitator to make it happen. The next nuclear review conference is due three years later, in 2015. "The road ahead is not easy," said Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz of Egypt, speaking on behalf of the 118-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), "but it's the only way forward." He singled out the reaffirmation by the conference of the importance of Israel's accession to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and the placement of all its nuclear facilities under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. "

Bechtel Power Corp has won the contract to design and consult on Egypt's first nuclear power plant, Electricity Minister Hassan Ahmed Younes said on Monday. The contract, with a price tag of 1 billion Egyptian pounds ($180 million), is for 10 years, Younes told a news conference called to announce the winner in the tender. ($1 = 5.5162 Egyptian pounds)

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit called on the UN Security Council to monitor the Israeli nuclear program, and to further order Mideast countries to strip of nuclear arms, Egyptian daily al-Masri al-Youm reported. "Israel's nuclear capabilities cannto evade world attention," Gheit said in a letter sent to the 15 nation members of the Security Council.

As Egypt's government prepares to finalise plans for the country's first nuclear power plant by the end of this year, opposition from a prominent tourism developer risks scuttling the project. But if the proposed site at Al Dabaa, a remote strip of desert coast about 140km west of Alexandria, does not receive final approval by the end of this year as planned, it could spell the end of Egypt's nascent civil nuclear energy plans and the beginning of an energy crisis, said Mohamed Mounir Megahed, the vice chairman for the Nuclear Power Plants Authority.

As Egypt's government prepares to finalise plans for the country's first nuclear power plant by the end of this year, opposition from a prominent tourism developer risks scuttling the project. But if the proposed site at Al Dabaa, a remote strip of desert coast about 140km west of Alexandria, does not receive final approval by the end of this year as planned, it could spell the end of Egypt's nascent civil nuclear energy plans and the beginning of an energy crisis, said Mohamed Mounir Megahed, the vice chairman for the Nuclear Power Plants Authority.