Rosatom to start building nuclear plant in Egypt this summer

MOSCOW. Jan 18 (Interfax) - Rosatom Group, Russia's state nuclear corporation, plans to start construction on the El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant in Egypt in the summer of 2022, CEO Alexei Likhachyov said.

"They [the Egyptian side] want to do everything so that the first concrete is poured in the summer, around July," Likhachev told reporters.

Rosatom said at the beginning of January that it has submitted the licencing documentation for the third and fourth generating units of the El Dabaa NPP to the Egyptian regulator. Full-scale work will begin at the country's first nuclear plant as soon as the construction permits are issued, the company said.

It was reported earlier that the Egyptian Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority (ENRRA) planned to issue the permit to build the first two units of the El Dabaa NPP in the second half of 2022. Likhachyov said in a television interview in March 2021 that the company expected to receive the construction permit for the plant in 2022.

Russia and Egypt signed an intergovernmental agreement on the construction of a nuclear power plant in November 2015. The EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract for the El Dabaa NPP was signed on December 31, 2016.

Likhachyov and Egyptian Electricity and Renewable Energy Minister Mohamed Shaker signed documents to put into force the commercial contracts for the construction of the four-unit El Dabaa NPP in December 2017 in Cairo. Construction of all four units of the plant is scheduled for completion in 2028-2029.