China offers to work with Egypt on nuclear power

[ECH1969]

China said on Tuesday it was willing to work with Egypt on nuclear energy projects, following talks with visiting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

China began commercial nuclear generation late, after decades of channeling its energies towards nuclear weapons development under Mao Zedong.

It tested its first atomic bomb in 1964, but its first civilian reactors came online only in the 1990s, and it is still commissioning firms from abroad to build new plants, despite a heavy emphasis on developing domestic technology.

http://za.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-11-07T121027Z_01_BAN743806_RTRIDST_0_OZATP-CHINA-EGYPT-20061107.XML

[Supersedeas]

1. Dr. Rice...paging our Sovietologist...Dr. Rice come in Dr. Rice

[oblivious]

2. Analysis: Egypt looks East for nuke power

Analysis: Egypt looks East for nuke power
Derek Sands
United Press International
November 15, 2006

CAIRO -- Russia and China have both said they want to help Egypt expand its nascent nuclear energy supplies, opening the way for stronger ties, but also leading to concerns over nuclear proliferation in the region.

Facing a fossil fuel shortage in the coming decades, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced in September that Egypt would turn to alternative energies, including nuclear power. The very public push to embrace nuclear energy has been well received in China and Russia, as well as in the United States.

...Following their meeting, a Russian official was quoted as saying Russia would offer Egypt help in its nuclear projects.

The United States also seems poised to become involved. Immediately following the September announcement, the US ambassador to Egypt said on Egyptian television that the United States was willing to provide technical assistance. And US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice used a trip to Cairo in October to express US support of a nuclear energy program.

Russia and the United States have a long history of helping Egypt with its nuclear energy program. The United States provided a research lab in the 1950s, through the Atoms for Peace program, and Russia provided a two-megawatt reactor. The reactor is still running in Inshas, north of Cairo, as is another 22-megawatt reactor Egypt bought from Argentina in 1997.

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20061115-040030-2277r

China-Egypt nuclear energy deal
China says it has reached an agreement with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, to co-operate on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

...Egypt plans to revive its nuclear energy programme, frozen 20 years ago after the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

Russia has also said it is willing to help Egypt to develop a nuclear energy programme.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6128438.stm

Egyptian FM stresses Iran's nuclear right
Egypt-Iran, Politics, 8/14/2006

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Sunday acknowledged Iran's right to access nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. His comments were heard at a joint press conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki before winding up his visit to the Egyptian capital.

The Egyptian foreign minister further said his country has always held a transparent stance on the Iran nuclear issue, and stressed the importance of implementing the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/060814/2006081414.html

Majlis speaker: Iran, Egypt two wings of Islamic world
Egypt-Iran, Politics, 10/23/2006

...According to the report of Majlis Media Department, Haddad Adel in meeting with Omar Ahmed Abdelmajid al-Zeyat, on Monday referred to the US and the west's efforts to make crisis concerning Iran's nuclear activities and appreciated Egypt's stance on supporting Iran's peaceful nuclear energy.

He stressed that the Americans definitely know very well that Iran is only to use the nuclear energy peacefully, but they are trying to use this as a pretext for imposing pressure on Tehran.

...The Egyptian official, for his part, reiterated his country's support for Iran's peaceful nuclear activities and expressed his country's stance on diplomatic solution of Iran's nuclear case dossier. He also called for expansion of ties between the two countries.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/061023/2006102303.html

Egypt: Nuclear alternative needed for development
Egypt, Economics, 11/13/2006

...the US representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Greek Sheet told Al-Ahram's reporter in Doha, Qatar that his country is ready to contribute to providing technical and technological requirements of the proposed Egyptian peaceful nuclear program in cooperation with the IAEA.

He added Washington had stressed support for the Egyptian orientation in this regard within the context of President George Bush's strategy to support any country willing to obtain the peaceful nuclear power technology.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/061113/2006111321.html