Egypt Goes Nuclear

Egypt’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy has announced that plans for its first nuclear power plant will proceed and has chosen Bechtel Power Corp. as contractor to design and consult. Bechtel will be paid about $180 million over a 10-year period to get the plant up and running.

"It is expected that the company will be invited to discuss the articles of the agreement in preparation for signing the contract," a statement from the Ministry said.

Bechtel will choose the technology and the site for the reactors, ensure quality control, training, and provide other technical services.

Bechtel will consider five locations for the first nuclear plant, starting with Dabaa on the Mediterranean coast west of Alexandria, the site where the Egyptian government was planning to build a power station in the 1980s, officials said.

Bechtel was competing against six other consortiums including 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 US companies with Egypt’s Excel.

The country ratified the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1981 but said last year it would not sign on to an additional protocol that would give the UN nuclear watchdog the right to make intrusive short-notice inspections of nuclear facilities.

Egypt said in October 2007 it would build several civilian nuclear power stations to meet its growing energy needs.