In reaction to an agreement with Egypt which will see Russia state-owned Rosatom build a nuclear power plant in the northern city of Dabaa, Julien Jreissati, Arab region campaigner at Greenpeace Mediterranean said: “Egypt is a country with great renewable energy potential, enough to ensure everlasting energy security and independency for its growing population. Considering that renewable energy production is safer, cheaper and cleaner than nuclear energy, this decision is irrational to say the least.”

 

Plans to build a nuclear plant in Egypt go as far back as the 1980s. However, they were frozen after the Chernobyl disaster and then revived in 2006.

 

"Nuclear industry still couldn't solve its root problems like radioactive waste and risks of repeating Chernobyl and Fukushima,” says Vladimir Chuprov, Greenpeace Russia energy expert. “The best solution to solve it is to improve the ways we are using the largest nuclear reactor around - the Sun, which has enough free fuel to run 24/7 for billions of years, and keeps its nuclear waste in safe distance. We just want our heads to wake up and turn their mind from underground fossil and uranium fuel and look to the energy around".

 

“There is no doubt now that the biggest threat looming over our planet is climate change,” added Jreissati, “and nuclear energy is not the answer, it is just an expensive diversion. The only real solution is to globally phase out from all fossil fuels, including natural gas, and shift to 100% renewable energy by 2050. This is not a dream. It is reality.”