National Progress Report: Egypt

Legislative framework:

The Egyptian nuclear and radiation law no. 7 of 2010:

Egypt promulgated the Egyptian nuclear and radiation law no. 7 of 2010 on March 29th, 2010. The Law covers safety, security, safeguards, emergency, and liability for the whole peaceful applications of atomic energy.

The law stipulated that all nuclear and radiation facilities, practices, and activities in the Arab Republic of Egypt shall exclusively be restricted to peaceful purposes.

The Law established an independent regulatory body to monitor all nuclear and radiation facilities, activities and practices known as “Egyptian Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority (ENRRA)", having a public juridical personality, reporting to the Prime Minister, having an independent budget and centrally located in Cairo.

ENRRA established on 5 March 2012. ENRRA shall be entrusted with regulatory and control functions for safety, security and safeguards related to the nuclear and radiation fields.

The Law established the Egyptian System of Nuclear Security within ENRRA’s organizational structure. The System deals with all nuclear security related activities for (in cooperation and collaboration with relevant stakeholders):

• Defining the anticipated threats.
• Reviewing and evaluating the performance of the design of the nuclear security systems,
• Classification for the nuclear materials and radioactive sources from the nuclear security perspective,
• Physical Protection on nuclear material and facilities,
• Approving Import and Export activities,
• Monitoring Illicit trafficking of nuclear and radioactive material measures and procedures, and
• Establishing the State’s database for nuclear material and radiation sources in all applications.

The executive regulation of the law no. 7 of 2010 was promulgated by the prime minister decree no. 1326 of 2011.

Nuclear security regulations:

Egyptian nuclear and radiological regulatory authority (ENRRA) promulgated certain regulations related to nuclear security, as follows:

• Regulation on the procedures and rules regulating the activities related to nuclear safeguards. This regulation was issued to ensure that all nuclear materials are controlled and used only in the peaceful applications and ensuring the non-diversion of these materials to non-peaceful applications.
• Regulation on classification of nuclear materials and radiation sources from nuclear security perspective. This regulation issued to specify the appropriate requirements and measures to be applied on each category to ensure that the nuclear materials and radiation sources is well protected from theft, sabotage or unauthorized access or any malicious act directed to the materials or sources.

ENRRA is drafting three other regulations concerning nuclear security as follows:

• Regulation on security of radioactive sources and facilities,
• Regulation on the physical protection of nuclear materials and facilities,
• Regulation on security of radioactive materials during transport.

United Nation Security Council resolution 1540 of 2004

In the context of Egypt's commitment to Security Council resolution 1540, Egypt keens to submit its national report to the committee 1540 to illustrate the Egyptian progress concerning the implementation of UNSCR 1540 of 2004, Egypt recently submitted its national report to the 1540 committee in 2016.

Integrated nuclear security Support Plan:

Egypt signed the Integrated Nuclear Security Support Plan (INSSP) with the International Atomic Energy Agency on 27 November 2014 to promote the collaboration between the two parties in the field of Nuclear Security.

From the signature of the INSSP a large scale of activities has been implemented in coordination with the International Atomic Energy Agency as follows:

• National workshop on drafting nuclear security regulations
• National workshop on the design basis threat
• Training courses on security of research reactors and associated facilities
• Training courses on drafting nuclear security plan for research reactor and associated facilities
• National training course on preventive measures against insider threat

In addition to that, ENRRA, Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority, and IAEA are collaborating in upgrading the physical protection systems of the Egyptian first and second research reactors.

Training and education

ENRRA Keens to promote the capabilities of all the competent authorities working in the field of nuclear security, for that reason, ENRRA established a nuclear security support and training center to provide training technical support to the national authorities working in this field. This center was established to ensure that all the employees working in this field are highly qualified and well trained.

As well as, ENRRA convened number of training course and workshops, as follows:

• Training courses to the civil protection employees on security of nuclear and radiation facilities and managing radiological accidents.
• Workshops to the front line officers

Other activities:

In addition to the abovementioned activities, ENRRA took several steps to enhance the national nuclear security regime including but not limited to:

• Technical support to the competent authorities working in the field of nuclear security.
• Developing the database on the nuclear materials and radioactive sources.
• Participated in drafting protocol on the security of land. Air, and sea borders from nuclear and radiation perspective.

Future vision:

• Complete the implementation of the Integrated Nuclear Security Plan in cooperation with IAEA.
• Training the workers in the field of nuclear security in all competent authorities.
• Developing the nuclear security support and training center.
• Collaboration with the Egyptian universities in developing curriculum concerning nuclear security.