Egypt is taking steps towards launching its first power-generating nuclear plant in Dabaa, located on the Mediterranean Coast, announced interim-President Adly Mansour in a televised statement.
In his speech to commemorate the 40th anniversary of 1973 war against Israel, President Mansour said that Egypt plans to use the nuclear power project for peaceful purposes to help fill an energy gap.
The first brick of Egypt’s Dabaa nuclear power plant was laid under ousted-president Hosni Mubarak, but was halted due to disputes with local residents, who accused the state of confiscating their land by force and without proper compensation.
In January 2012, Dabaa locals stormed the construction site, destroying existing infrastructure and refusing to surrender to military police. Low radioactive sources were also looted from the location, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Last week, local tribes from Dabaa, Marsa Matrouh - a sea port 240 km west of Alexandria - relinquished the nuclear construction site to the Egyptian armed forces after months of occupying the controversial zone.
President Mansour also stated that the government would resume the Suez Canal development plant, planned under ousted-Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and known as Egypt's Suez Canal Corridor (SCC).
The SCC was to be operated through public-private partnerships, in order to develop Egypt's three canal governorates – Suez, Ismailia and Port Said – by 2017. The initiative is to feature a number of large-scale projects, including a 'Technology Valley' in Ismailia, which will host several technology projects, along with a new tunnel linking the Suez Canal's west bank to the central Sinai Peninsula.
