Nuclear education to have a positive impact on Egypt’s economy

As Egypt is about to sign the final contracts with Russia’s Rosatom for the construction of its first nuclear power plant at El Dabaa, the issue of educating and training personnel for the country’s nuclear industry, which will require thousands of qualified cadre, is coming to the fore. Experts agree that the training and education of nuclear personnel is vital to Egypt’s economy, and the cooperation of all parties involved is going to be crucial to its success.

Nuclear training and education is conducted at three levels, corresponding to the levels of specialists needed for work in Egypt’s nuclear industry – engineers, technicians and administrative staff. Dr. Maher Aziz, former minister of environment and Chief Advisor For Energy, Environment, and Climate Change, notes, ‘The educational and training programs will continue at these three levels in the medium and long term, to ensure the utmost preparation and development of cadres required for the operation of the nuclear project throughout its operational life.’

Dr. Mohamed El Sobki, engineering professor at the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University, believes that, ‘The training should be supported by all entities that are linked directly or indirectly to nuclear power and should be implemented according to the highest level of specialization, which will help the trainees to become trainers in the future. This level of training reflects the quality standard of knowledge transfer in nuclear power.’

Speaking of the current state of nuclear education and training at all three levels, Dr Aziz notes that nuclear engineers are needed for the operation and maintenance of the NPP, while ‘technicians are the main pillar of the actual operation and continuous maintenance of the nuclear plant. Therefore, great attention should be paid to them in terms of high-level preparation during the construction period by mean of training programs starting in Russia and continued in Egypt.