Russia’s Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation and Egypt’s Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy have signed the notices to proceed with the contracts for the construction of the El Dabaa nuclear power plant (NPP).

 The signing ceremony was held in the presence of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt Abdel Fattah El Sisi.

According to the signed contracts, Rosatom will build four VVER-1200 units of the El Dabaa NPP in the Matrouh region on the Mediterranean coast, as well as supplying nuclear fuel throughout the plant’s entire operational lifetime. This will help ensure competitive electricity pricing in Egypt over a period of 60 years.

Rosatom will also be conduct personnel training and will assist its Egyptian partners in the operation and maintenance of the El Dabaa NPP for the first 10 years of its operation. As part of yet another contract, the Russian side will construct a purpose-built storage and supply containers for storing spent fuel. The first unit of the El Dabaa NPP is to be commissioned in 2026.

“The contracts we’ve signed are a record-breaking deal in the history of the nuclear industry. The total cost of all four contracts amounts to billions of US dollars, also being the biggest non-feedstock deal in Russian history,” said director general of Rosatom Alexey Likhachev.

“We offered our partners in Egypt a unique comprehensive agreement that spans the power plant’s entire life cycle, that is 70 to 80 years. Today Rosatom is the only company in the world that is capable of providing the full range of peaceful nuclear services. The development of Egypt’s nuclear power industry is also important to Russia’s economy as dozens of Rosatom enterprises will be awarded significant contracts and will have an opportunity to showcase to the global community the advantage of Russian nuclear technologies.”

Rosatom will also aid Egypt in developing its nuclear infrastructure, as well as increasing the level of project localization and supporting Egypt in training nuclear cadre and driving the public acceptance of nuclear power.

The training of future NPP employees will be conducted in both Russia and Egypt. Over the next few years, hundreds of Egyptian students will study nuclear disciplines in Russia. The construction of the El Dabaa NPP will provide a stimulus for Egypt’s industrial development, with several dozens of Egyptian companies to be involved in the construction. The construction of the first unit is expected to have a localization level of at least 20%, while further units will be even more localized.

The 1,200 MWe reactor unit is a modern, internationally referenced Generation 3+ nuclear power plant that is fully compliant with post-Fukushima IAEA requirements and already implemented in Russia. On December 8, 2017 first criticality procedures was begun at the innovative Unit 1 of Leningrad NPP-2, a generation 3+ plant, that is referential to “El Dabaa” NPP project.

Leningrad NPP-2 operating personnel successfully loaded the first of the 163 fuel assemblies with fresh nuclear fuel. Earlier, on August 5, 2016 the world’s first innovative Generation 3+ nuclear power unit was connected to the grid at the Novovoronezh NPP in Russia. – TradeArabia News Service