'Egypt will pursue nuclear energy'

[Cheetah786]

President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday called for Egypt to pursue nuclear energy, as the US ambassador said Washington would be willing to help its Mideast ally develop a peaceful program.

Mubarak echoed a call made earlier this week by his son, Gamal, who many believe is being groomed to succeed his father. The proposal surprised some, who saw it as a jab at the United States, which is locked in a confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program.

"We must increase our exploitation of new energy sources, including the peaceful uses of nuclear energy," President Mubarak said in a televised speech at the closing session of a three-day conference of his ruling National Democratic Party.

"I call for a serious debate (in Egypt), taking into consideration what nuclear tecnology can provide by way of clean, inexpensive energy sources," he said.

He said Egypt was "not starting from zero. We have knowledge of this technology, enabling us to move forward with it."

US Ambassador to Egypt, Francis Ricciardone, said the United States had no problem with an Egyptian nuclear program and is ready to supply technology to help.

"There is no comparison between Iran and Egypt in this field. Iran has a nuclear weapons program, but using nuclear power for peaceful means is a totally different matter," he told the Egyptian TV station El-Mehwar.

"If Egypt, after detailed study on this subject, decides that nuclear power is a positive thing and important for Egypt, we can cooperate in this field. Why not?" he said.

The 42-year-old Gamal Mubarak made the nuclear proposal during a speech on Tuesday at a conference of the ruling National Democratic Party, where he is the deputy secretary general.

Egypt has conducted nuclear experiments on a very small scale for the past four decades, but they have not included the key process of uranium enrichment, according to the UN's nuclear watchdog.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a 2005 report that the program did not appear to be aimed at developing weapons. :army:

 

[Kaiser]

Egypt is a pussy like the rest of the arab countries in the world. The US wont supports Egypts nuclear program, and never will in the future. These arabs are nothing but losers who are trying to make there mark in the muslim world like pakistan, iran and hezbollah have done.

Anyone who thinks that egypt actually in the future is gonna have a nuke program without getting attacked then your either a egyptian or some arab wahabi

 

[Kaiser]

Here are some interesting articles on egypts nuclear program

Egypt's nuclear history
At the center of Egypt's nuclear program is the Inshas Nuclear Research Center in Cairo. Inshas hosts a 2-megawatt, Soviet-supplied research reactor that started in 1961 and runs on ten-percent-enriched uranium fuel. The reactor was shut down for renovation during the 1980s, but started up again in 1990. According to Egypt's Atomic Energy Agency, the reactor should serve Egypt's research needs for the next ten years, by which time Egypt hopes to have completed a larger research reactor to replace it.
Egypt also runs a number of other research facilities at Inshas. These include a small French-supplied hot cell complex for plutonium extraction research, the Middle East's first industrial electronic accelerator, and a pilot nuclear fuel factory, completed in 1987, used to process natural uranium mined in Egypt. In addition, Egypt plans to build a larger fuel fabrication plant, reportedly with help from Germany.
Egypt's expanded nuclear activity has raised some eyebrows in Israel. In 1990, the Israeli press reported that Egypt was cooperating with Pakistan, Iraq and Argentina to build a plutonium-producing reactor for nuclear weapons. Argentina later revealed that it was preparing to supply a 20-MWt research reactor to Egypt under international inspection, though Argentina faced competition from other bidders, including the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., and France's nuclear giant, Framatome.
By September 1992, Egypt had signed a contract with Invap, Argentina's leading nuclear organization, to build a 22-megawatt research reactor at Inshas. According to statements by an official at Argentina's embassy in Washington, DC, construction began in March 1993. In 1995, Egypt's Rose al-Yusuf' magazine reported that Egypt's Minister of Electricity and Energy, Mahim Abazah, had confirmed that a shipment of supplies was en route from Argentina in April, and that the reactor would be completed in 1997. Egyptian officials still expect the reactor to start operation next year.
As Cairo was making up its mind about which type of research reactor to buy, U.S. and Canadian officials reportedly steered Egypt away from Chinese models. In exchange for giving up Chinese imports, Egypt was reportedly promised help from the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) and the U.S. Bechtel company to study the feasibility of building power reactors in Egypt. The industry trade newsletter, Nucleonics Week, reported in September 1992 that the AECL-Bechtel study found that only 30 percent of a Canadian-style power reactor could be locally produced in Egypt. Egypt still hopes to import power reactors. Egyptian officials have talked since the early 1980s about building up to eight 1,000-MWe reactors to supply up to 40 percent of Egypt's electricity needs. By mid-1985, three international supplier groups had bid to build the first two reactors: one group led by Germany's Kraftwerk Union, a second Franco-Italian group led by Framatome, and a third headed by Westinghouse of the United States. The reactors would be sited at El-Dabaa, outside Alexandria, and would be owned and operated by Egypt's Nuclear Power Plants Authority. But as the Risk Report went to press, the Egyptian government had not announced the award of any contract.

 

[A.Rahman]

Egypt is a pussy like the rest of the arab countries in the world.

Same like Musharraf.. "Please dont bomb us, we will do what ever you say" isnt it?

 

[EagleEyes]

Kaiser watch your language!

Thanks

 

[Kaiser]

Same like Musharraf.. "Please dont bomb us, we will do what ever you say" isnt it?

Yes same thing

 

[Thunder]

Kaiser

Watch what you say, egypt by far has to be one of the bravest arab country. I belive they had a nuke progam going in the 60's. As for the arabs, respect them too because they are our brothers and friends

 

[Kaiser]

Kaiser

Watch what you say, egypt by far has to be one of the bravest arab country. I belive they had a nuke progam going in the 60's. As for the arabs, respect them too because they are our brothers and friends

No arabs and egyptians are loosers, and rats. How dare you call those betrayers of islam our brothers, there asses lost to israel 4 times at the same time they outnumbered israel atleast 8-1. Then even after that they run to the UN and US asking for a ceasefire while the whole world was laughing at them

 

[A.Rahman]

Isreal had 100% backup of USA, and they had advanced western weapons, while arabs had old soviet weapons.

guess who won?

 

[Kaiser]

Isreal had 100% backup of USA, and they had advanced western weapons, while arabs had old soviet weapons.

guess who won?

No israel didnt have any american weapons until 1967 and even then the arabs had the latest soviet weapons and had spent not months training but years. Yet egypt and syria outnumbered israel 4-1, israel still won.

Forgot 1948 where a small militia force for the new Israel which had only assembled on the 2nd day of fighting defeated the armies of egypt, syria, jordan, and iraq?

Seems embarassing doesnt it?

Hezbollah a small militia force who faught in the name of Islam had stopped Israel desires to spread the jewish state to the border of turkey. See what happens when you have a great moral to fight for instead of trying to extend your border?

 

[Cheetah786]

Kaiser

Watch what you say, egypt by far has to be one of the bravest arab country. I belive they had a nuke progam going in the 60's. As for the arabs, respect them too because they are our brothers and friends

Bravest arab country
respect the Arabs ...how can u expect us to respect some one that dont have any self respect...

 

[Cheetah786]

Same like Musharraf.. "Please dont bomb us, we will do what ever you say" isnt it?

couldnt have said it better my self

 

[KashifAsrar]

It made me laugh also. I mean the term 'Bravest Arab Country' !
Can you explain some of thier braveity dear!
Kashif

 

[Cheetah786]

Plans announced recently by Egypt and Turkey that they hope to build nuclear power plants are raising a ripple of concern about the long-term prospect of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

"It is easy to exaggerate and it is true that these countries have a right to seek all sources of energy but it is indisputable that there is also a strategic element to this," said Mark Fitzpatrick, senior fellow in non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

One of the dangers of Iran going nuclear has always been that it might provoke others. So when you see the development of nuclear power elsewhere in the region, it does raise concerns

Mark Fitzpatrick

"Having a nuclear infrastructure is the step which a country needs to accomplish if it decides to embark on the path of nuclear weapons. Pakistan took that route," he said.

According to this theory, Egypt and Turkey are worried at the failure of the United Nations to stop Iran(wow they are worried for a muslim country to get nukes but they have no problem with israel sitting next to them with nukes and kicking there a ss every day since the day 1 ) from enriching uranium. They consider they might be left behind if Iran, despite its denials, does one day develop as a nuclear armed power.

They are therefore taking preliminary steps to protect themselves from a security point of view as well as an energy one.

"One of the dangers of Iran going nuclear has always been that it might provoke others. So when you see the development of nuclear power elsewhere in the region, it does raise concerns," said Mark Fitzpatrick.

Case for nuclear power

On the other hand, Western concerns might be seen in the Middle East as another example of advanced countries, which freely use nuclear energy and some of which have nuclear weapons, trying to hold others back.

Turkey has a good energy case for going ahead with the three plants it plans to build by 2015.

According to the CIA World Factbook, Turkey is estimated to produce 50,000 barrels of oil per day yet it consumes 700,000 barrels per day.

Egypt is oil-richer. It has reserves of some 2.7 billion barrels, according to the CIA, produces 700,000 barrels per day and is estimated to consume about 500,000 per day. It has announced plans to build one nuclear power station.

The proposal was announced by Gamal Mubarak, President Hosni Mubarak's son, and his central role in this is being taken as a sign that Gamal intends to run for the presidency after his father.

Both Turkey and Egypt have also signed up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This bans the further spread of nuclear weapons among member states.

Both could also argue that in a world worried about the use of fossil fuels, nuclear energy is an environmentally friendly option.

However, energy is not the only factor a country takes into account when developing nuclear energy.

There are the issues of prestige and the opportunity for domestic scientific development. Both have been played up by Iran which has managed to turn its nuclear ambition into a symbol of national ambition and progress.

Not seeking to enrich uranium

One factor calming down the strategic fears is that neither Egypt nor Turkey is talking, as Iran is, about developing an indigenous uranium enrichment capability.

No-one should simply assume that Israel would stay where it is now with its ambiguous capability if Iran becomes a nuclear power. Israeli policy is likely to change, in order to demonstrate that the country has continued strategic superiority

Professor Gerald Steinberg, Bar-Ilan University

Enriched uranium is used for the generation of nuclear power. But the same process can enrich uranium more highly and that can be used in a nuclear bomb.

Enriched uranium is widely available on the world market. Iran's insistence that it needs to carry out the enrichment itself is one of the factors behind Security Council demands that Iran suspend enrichment while talks take place on its whole programme.

Israel's possession of nuclear weapons has often prompted similar fears of a nuclear arms race. Egypt has called for a nuclear weapons-free Middle East.

However, the prospects for that appear to be further away than ever. Israel regards Iran as its principal strategic threat.

It has a policy of neither confirming nor denying its nuclear weapons capacity, saying only that it will not be the first to "introduce nuclear weapons" into the region. That ambiguous approach is going to be strained if it concludes that Iran is going for the bomb.

"No one should simply assume that Israel would stay where it is now with its ambiguous capability if Iran becomes a nuclear power," Professor Gerald Steinberg, head of the Conflict Management Programme at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv told Reuters recently.

"Israeli policy is likely to change, in order to demonstrate that the country has continued strategic superiority," he said.

 

[waz]

Kaiser

Watch what you say, egypt by far has to be one of the bravest arab country. I belive they had a nuke progam going in the 60's. As for the arabs, respect them too because they are our brothers and friends

I think that is stretching it bro....They performed miserably in the first two wars but did however redeem themselves in the war of Yon Kippur but then again due to the stupidity of those who rule them [to which I direct this post] they ended up being surrounded!

Their disgraceful treatment of Palestinian refugees is shocking and getting worse by the day. Remember when Mubarak blamed Hezbollah for "increasing tensions" yet there was nothing in the way of condemnation for what Israel was doing.

I can also recall them blaming the bombings of Sharm Al Sheikh on Pakistani's even though they produce the WORST terrorists in the world just look at Al Qaeda’s number 2 Mr Zawahiri…When the bombings were found to be done by Bedouin extremists they did not even utter an apology.

The Egyptian government is one of the last I would call a friend to Pakistan....

I prefer the UAE, Saudi etc.