Egypt, Russia 'complete Daba'a plant talks'

Egypt and Russia have completed their talks on contracts to build a nuclear power plant at Daba'a, according to a report from Cairo by Russian news agency TASS that cites Egypt's electricity and energy minister, Mohamed Shaker. The four draft agreements - which cover technical support, operation, maintenance, and fuel supply - require approval by the State Council, or the Supreme Administrative Court, it added.

The two countries signed an intergovernmental agreement in November 2015 to collaborate in the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant equipped with four 1200 MWe units. The agreement includes provision of a Russian state-backed loan of $25 billion for the $30 billion project. The Russian state loan will cover about 85% of the plant's construction costs, with Egypt to raise the remainder from private investors. The project is to be completed within 12 years and Egypt will start its repayment of the loan at an interest rate of 3% from October 2029.

The minister said on 6 August that legal review of two out of the four agreements has been completed, while the other two are still undergoing this process. He noted that much had been done, with international consultancy engaged, to review the agreements' technical and legal aspects.

Shaker said he hopes Egyptian engineering troops will clear the area intended for the plant construction site in six months, according to TASS. He also noted that Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom will supply Generation III reactor technology that meets the most advanced security and safety standards.

Earlier the same day, Egypt's ministry of electricity and energy, and ministry of investment and international cooperation, signed a cooperation protocol to clear the territory allocated for the construction of the plant of mines and other objects remaining after several wars, TASS said. The overall area to be cleared of mines measures 4,533 hectares and more than $110,000 has been allocated for this task under the protocol, it added.

Construction work at the plant - to be built near the city of El Alamein, which is about 3.5km off the Mediterranean coast - is expected to create 20,000 jobs. Once commissioned, the plant will employ around 4000 people.

Asked at the AtomExpo conference held in Moscow in June this year why the project was taking so long to materialise, Rosatom deputy director-general for international business, Kirill Komarov, told media the time taken to date was not unusual. "Contracts for the construction of four power units, the supply of nuclear fuel for 60 years, the provision of services as well as waste and used fuel management, that's a large package of documents. We don't want to announce their signing ahead of time and so I won't provide a specific date, but we believe the four contracts are at a highest level of readiness to be signed," he said.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News