Egypt plans to start mining crude uranium in 2024 as part of the country's rapidly developing program for peaceful use of nuclear energy, Amr El-Hag Ali, according to the chairman of the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority (EAEA).
"We will start mining crude uranium in 2024 with the help of Egyptian experts and ideas," Amr El-Hag Ali, the chairman of the EAEA told the Capital Broadcasting Center on Tuesday.
The EAEA chief noted since crude uranium cannot be used in nuclear power plant reactors, Cairo will have to send it to other countries for processing.
Al-Hajj pointed out that Egypt possesses at the same time one of the nine nuclear fuel production plants in the world. He added that this would allow Cairo to save money, as importing fuel is more expensive than producing it locally.
"If we reach serious agreements, then we will probably be able to export nuclear fuel used for scientific reactors," El-Hag told the broadcaster.
He also stated that Egypt needs highly qualified personnel to work in this sector.
Egypt began prospecting for uranium deposits in 1965, with mines being dug in the Western Desert bordering Libya and in the Eastern Desert near the resort town of Hurghada.
In 2015, Cairo signed an agreement with Moscow to cooperate in building Egypt's first nuclear power plant (NPP) in the town of Dabaa, on condition that Russia provides a $25 billion loan for this purpose.
In December 2017, the two countries also signed an appendix to the agreement to activate commercial contracts for the construction of the nuclear power plant.
In November 2022, the Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom began construction of the second power unit of the El-Dabaa nuclear power plant. The station will consist of four power units of 1,200 MW each.
They will work on the advanced Russian nuclear reactor VVER-1200 belonging to the 3+ generation, which meet the highest post-Fukushima safety standards.
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