Local Opposition, Bureaucratic Turf Battles Stall Egypt’s Nuclear Program

Egypt has made scant progress with its multi-billion-dollar nuclear energy program.

More than 30 years after its launch, Egypt’s nuclear program has failed to complete a reactor to produce electricity. A site designated for Egypt’s first nuclear energy reactor, located in Dabaa along the Mediterranean Sea, has also been languishing amid bureaucratic battles, lack of funds and opposition from local property owners.

Since the launch of the project, there is little in Dabaa to suggest a nuclear energy program. The Egyptian Atomic Energy Agency has overseen the construction of several one-story buildings in the 6.5 square kilometer site some 400 kilometers west of Cairo.

The contractor for the nuclear project was identified as El Alamen, owned by a member of a leading tribe in the Matrouh province. Officials said the current stage of the project was to build housing for engineers and other personnel.

Daaba has sought to block the nuclear energy project. In 2012, thousands of people stormed the project site, destroyed the wall and vandalized buildings.

“The people of Dabaa had been enduring constant problems and disregard by the Egyptian government, most notably that they have not been enrolled in military academies over the past period,” Mohamed Said Saleh, a prominent resident, told Egypt’s independent Al Masri Al Yom.

Saleh, who comes from the Abu Shkara tribe, said the Egyptian Army settled with many of the property owners around Daaba. He said he did not know of efforts to again disrupt the project, meant to contain eight reactors.

“We demanded the study on the station’s lands to be redone, lawsuits by the Electricity Ministry to be dropped and priority in job appointments to be given to the damaged citizens of Dabaa after the nuclear project is finished,” Mastour Abu Shkara, a Dabaa activist, told Al Masri Al Yom. “We also demanded to grant the citizens fair compensation for the lands grabbed for the project based on a presidential decree in 1981.”

Still, security remains high around Dabaa. The army patrols the project site and makes all decisions.

“The contracting company cooperates with the Egyptian armed forces in all technical and financial issues,” project manager Hamdy Gharib said. “The Electricity Ministry was merely in charge of handing over its lands to the armed forces.”

Source: World Tribune