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| Nuclear Morocco ? |
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| Monday, 05 July 2010 12:42 | ||||||||||||||||||
.jpg){kind=spacer} Washington / Morocco Board News Service - France and Morocco signed last week a cooperation agreement on civilian nuclear power development. The two countries signed a cooperation agreement for the "development of peaceful uses of nuclear power by Morocco”, which, unlike Algeria, has no gas reserves of oil but produces phosphates that contain the uranium.Morocco expects to commission its first plant between 2022 and 2024 and aims to do the bidding and contract negotiations between 2011 and 2014. The agreement "sets the framework for actions that can be made by the two countries especially in technology, safety and training. It is a "framework agreement that has underpinned Morocco on the way to prepare its entry into the field of nuclear energy, but not a" commercial agreement for the construction of a day nuclear reactor, "said Mr Fillon. "In a second step, of course that France will make proposals to that effect, given the excellence of its technology and its businesses," he added. Morocco plans to open negotiations next year on building its first nuclear power plant, which is scheduled to be up and running between 2022 and 2024. France has the world's second-biggest network of nuclear reactors and generates a greater proportion of its own electricity through nuclear power than any other economy -- around 75 percent of its needs. Morocco has growing electricity demand and produced 23 billion kWh gross in 2006. In 2006 59% of electricity was supplied by coal, 20% by oil, 13% from gas. It is also setting up the infrastructure to support a nuclear power program, including establishment of a nuclear safety authority and a radiation protection authority. Earlier proposals were for a 600 MWe nuclear power plant to be sited between the cities of Essaouira and Safi. Morocco has a 2 MW Triga research reactor under construction near city of Rabat. In January 2010 the government announced plans for two 1000 MWe nuclear reactors to start operation after 2020 as part of its submission to the Copenhagen Accord, agreed late in 2009. In 2007 France's nuclear giant Areva signed an agreement with Morocco's Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP) to investigate recovery of uranium from phosphoric acid. The amount of uranium in Morocco's phosphates is reported to be very large. The government's “Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines” (ONHYM) is encouraging exploration for uranium to build upon that done by French and Russian geologists prior to 1982. Three areas are under investigation: Haute Moulouya, Wafagga and Sirwa. Neighboring Algeria has sufficient uranium resources to produce nuclear energy. On the southwest border with Niger, there are an estimated 56,000 tons of uranium that could be used to produce nuclear. The Country has two nuclear research reactors but no uranium enrichment capacity. It has recently signed an agreement with South Africa to develop civilian nuclear energy. It was thought that Algiers wanted to develop a military program in order to gain preeminence in North Africa. This motivation aroused concerns in neighboring countries, particularly Spain, Morocco, and Tunisia. When U.S. satellites spotted the construction of the Es Salam reactor in the early 1990s, the United States placed great pressure on Algerian authorities, forcing Algiers to accept International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and join the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). US representative for nuclear non-proliferation, Susan Burk US recently declared that it supports Algeria in its development of nuclear energy for pacific use. Algerian Energy Minister, Chakib Khelil, announced that Algeria intends to build its first nuclear power plant by 2020 and another power plant every 5 years thereafter. Morocco Board News Service -
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morro yankee
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good move but not with the french, the moroccan govt should have done business either with us or russia, it's a lot cheaper. |
Johnny Haaspoort
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NO to Nuclear anywhere ! Nuclear power anywhere in the World should be discouraged and Sustainable Energy from sources like Solar,Biological and Wind or Wave should be advances at all costs. http://haaspoort.blogspot.com/ |
Ussef
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... Areva builds the plant - Morocco pays Areva extracts Uranium - Morocco pays Areva ship it to be enriched in France then back - Morocco pays Areva runs the plant, sells electricity - Morocco pays Areva disposes of the waste - Morocco pays for it too And once the plant is obsolete, Morocco pays for its decommissioning Preposterous!!! what is it that Morocco gains from all this ???? Let's stick with Alstom and SNCF, their TGVs and turbines . At least when forced to buy something in exchange of political support, it better be of some usefulness! |
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