Egypt's minister of electricity says the country plans to construct its first nuclear power plant and have it fully operational by 2019.The state-owned MENA news agency quotes Hassan Youniss as saying that Egypt also plans to construct three more nuclear plants by 2025. Youniss said Egypt will release international bidding for the plant's construction at the end of the year. The facility is probable to cost between $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion.
President Hosni Mubarak first announced plans to build a number of nuclear power plants in 2007, stimulating a program that was publicly shelved in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl accident at a Soviet nuclear plant in what is now Ukraine.
