Dabaa project contracts to be signed before 2017: NPPA head

CAIRO – 30 August 2017: The ceremony to sign the contracts for establishing the Dabaa nuclear power plant will be held before the end of 2017, chairman of the Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA) Amgad el-Wakeel said on Tuesday.

The project is slated to be set up in Matrouh governorate, on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, in participation with Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom.

In a statement, Wakeel added that the move to sign the contracts came after prolonged negotiations.

Earlier, Council of State head Ahmed Aboul-Azm had issued a decision of holding an urgent session on Wednesday to review the two contracts of the Dabaa nuclear power plant project.

On Sunday, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi met with CEO of Rosatom Alexey Likhachev to discuss the contracts of the Dabaa nuclear power project as they are being finalized.

The president expressed his hope that the construction of the project start soon.

Moscow concluded three contracts with Egypt that shall promote the Dabaa nuclear project in Matrouh governorate, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a Monday joint press conference in Moscow with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry.

Egypt and Russia reached an intergovernmental agreement on Nov. 19, 2015 that granted the construction of the Dabaa nuclear power plant using Russian technologies and backed by a $25 billion loan from Russia.

The nuclear power plant, to be developed by Russian state-owned firm Rosatom, will consist of four units generating 1200 MW. Egypt hopes that the launch of the first nuclear power plant will take place in 2024.