Israel unveiled plans Tuesday to work with its Arab neighbours to build a nuclear power plant in a project aimed at meeting the region's energy needs and promoting peace. Israel has already chosen a site for the nuclear reactor - the first to be put to civilian energy use - in the northern part of the Negev desert, said Israeli Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau.
"Nuclear energy can be an area of regional co-operation with the objective of promoting peace," Landau told a Paris conference on the civilian use of nuclear power. Israel has two nuclear reactors, one near the south-east city of Dimona that is widely believed to be used to produce atomic weapons, and a second research reactor at Nahal Soreq near Tel Aviv.
The Jewish state is widely reported to have nuclear weapons but refuses to confirm or deny this, pursuing a policy of "nuclear ambiguity." Israeli officials said on Monday that the new plant would be a joint project between Israel and Jordan and that France would supervise and provide technology. "Naturally any nuclear power plant to be built in Israel will be subject to all the international safeguards," said Landau.
Israel is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has said it will not sign up for a Middle East nuclear-free zone being promoted by the United States. Israel, which has a severe power shortage, is an arid country with no option of hydroelectric generation and no oil, and the government faces local opposition to building more coal-fired electricity plants.
"Israel is an energy island so to speak. It has to import all its energy resources in order to provide its energy needs," said the minister at the two-day conference. President Nicolas Sarkozy opened the 65-nation conference in Paris on Monday by offering French know-how to build nuclear reactors to be a safe and efficient source of clean energy all over the world.
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