OREANDA-NEWS. February 29, 2008. Russia’s cooperation with Egypt in the field of peaceful use of nuclear energy may have quite good prospects, the director of the Middle East and Northern Africa Department of the Foreign Ministry of Russia Sergey Vershinin said in a talk with RIA Novosti. “There are many spheres where we can cooperate quite successfully and the peaceful use of nuclear energy is one of them. This cooperation may have quite good prospects. Our nuclear authorities are already establishing relevant contacts,” Vershinin said.

Vershinin is sure that due to its high technological potential Russia will have quite good chances at any tenders in friendly countries. Recently, Egypt said that it was going to announce an international tender to secure support for its national nuclear program. The tender will be open for all international companies supplying equipment and fuel for nuclear power plants and owning up-to-date technologies.

On Oct 29 2007 President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak said that Egypt was starting a program to build nuclear power plants in its territory. He said that NPPs would help his country to diversify its energy sources. Russia, the United States, China and other countries have supported Egypt’s plans and have offered their assistance. The first Egyptian NPPs is supposed to be launched in some eight years. Its construction is estimated at $1.5bln-$2bln and will be financed by foreign sources. In the 1980s Egypt was seriously considering the possibility of building NPPs but after the Chernobyl accident in 1986 it stopped its research.