In an interview with Daily News Egypt Minister of Electricity Mohammed Shaker explained that nuclear power was a key facet in the government’s strategy to tackle the current energy crisis.

Renewables had to be combined with energy efficiency and more traditional sources of energy, namely coal and nuclear power, he added.

The nuclear program, moreover, was in complete conformity with IAEA standards and requirements.

“Nuclear plants’ projects depend on communication between the project’s parties and the beneficiaries to ensure the best performance in planed times. Therefore the IAEA requires participating with the participation of all the project stakeholders”, he added. “There are also terms to provide the highest levels of environment protection surrounding the plant’s site and to elaborate an emergency plan. These terms are an essential part of the infrastructure to stress on the procedures followed during emergency and to be prepared for it.”

“Egypt’s strategy for the management of nuclear fuel of high radiation includes two aspects; the temporary storage and awaiting the examination of all technical and economic considerations associated with the subsequent stage. The nuclear fuel is then stored gradually in water basins to alleviate radiation of the fuel as well as providing suitable means for cooling so that the heat emitted from it could be extracted on an ongoing basis”, he said.

“Disposal of low and medium-level radioactive waste will be done by processing at the power plant with modern and sophisticated technologies, supplied by the main contractor for the nuclear power plant project” he went on to say, adding that “The contractor, the Russian corporation Rosatom, handles equipping a cell at the fuel basin to secure the processing hardware and contaminated equipment.”

“There will also be an accurate system of operations associated with the management of radioactive waste – assembly, classification, transport, and storage – and keeping these operations under constant monitoring, verification, and audit. This will be through the establishment of an accounting system for all sorts of radioactive waste resulting from operation”, he insisted.

In other news Amwal Al-Ghad said that Russia has selected East Port Said area to establish its industrial zone in Egypt, citing chairman of the Egyptian Industrial Development Authority (IDA) Ismail Gaber.

Gaber added that the industrial zone negotiations between Cairo and Moscow had been suspended recently in the wake of the Russian plane crash in Sinai Peninsula but would resume soon.

The Russian government is very keen to establish the industrial zone in Egypt, he added.

The size of Russian investments in Egypt is estimated at $107.8m while the volume of trade exchange between Egypt and Russia reached $5m.