CAIRO: The instability in Egypt has delayed the tender for the country's first nuclear power plant, a state-owned newspaper reported Saturday. "It has been decided to postpone the international tender for the construction ... of the first nuclear power plant in Al-Dabaa until the stabilization of the situation in the country," Al-Ahram said. The tender process, due in January, has been delayed to "guarantee the greatest number of companies" from different countries take part to ensure "real competition," it said. Egypt's nuclear program was frozen in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine. In 2007, now ex-president Hosni Mubarak announced the relaunch of the program and said four civil nuclear power stations would be built under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency. On Aug. 25, Mubarak announced Egypt's plan to build its first power plant on the Mediterranean coast at Al-Dabaa. The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces warned Friday that it will no longer tolerate protests that disrupt Egypt's economy. – Agence France
