Egypt imposes media gag on nuclear plant: MENA

December 22nd, 2015

Awake Goy

TCP : Egyptian Authorities imposed Monday evening a media gag on the Egyptian first nuclear power plant (NPP) that will be constructed in Mediterranean city of Dabaa, state-owned news agency MENA reported.

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Media outlets should not publish any content on the NPP without taking permission from “the concerned security bodies and the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Resources,” the agency added without going into further details, or revealing the identity of the authority issued this ban.

On Nov. 19, the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Russia’s state-owned Rosatom signed a contract for the construction of the plant.

The plant’s construction is to be accomplished in two phases; Russia will build four reactors, while the other four reactors will be offered for an international tender. The construction works are scheduled to start in mid-2016 to be completed by 2022. Costs of all four reactors are estimated at $20 billion as $5 billion for each, per the contract.

Russia will fund 80 percent of the plant constructions; President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi announced in the signing ceremony that his country will repay Russia a loan over 35 years from the revenues of electricity that will be produced from the plant. He did not mention the value of the loan.

In 1981, Egypt allocated the Dabaa area in the Mediterranean governorate of Matrouh, 183.9 miles to the northwest of Cairo, to build the plant of 55 square kilometers.

Recently, Prime Minister Sherirf Smail announced Egypt will start producing power from the nuclear power plant by 2024.

The Cairo Post