Egypt, Russia in final stage of drafting NPP’s final contract

CAIRO – 27 May 2017: The Ministry of Electricity and Russia’s state-owned Rosatom are in final stage of drafting the fourth contract on the construction of the first nuclear power plant (NPP) in the Mediterranean city of Dabaa, said an official from the ministry on Saturday.

In November 2015, the three contracts were initialed, per an agreement reached between President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, to finance and build four reactors in the first phase by Rosatom.

The fourth contract is about the maintenance and operation of the first phase of the NPP.

The plant’s construction is to be completed over two phases; Russia will build four reactors, while the other four will be offered through an international tender. Each reactor will produce 1,200 megawatts of electricity.

The total cost of all four reactors is estimated at $20 billion, $5 billion each, per the contracts.

In 1981, Egypt allocated the Dabaa area in the Mediterranean governorate of Matrouh, approximately 296 kilometers to the northwest of Cairo, to build its first nuclear plant of 55 square kilometers.

It had been scheduled that the construction works would start in mid-2016; however, the official said that President Sisi is the only person authorized to give the green-light for the construction works.