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)
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