Construction permit application for Egyptian reactors submitted

Full-scale construction of Units 1 and 2 will start once the permit is granted, according to a June 30 statement from ASE Rosatom, the engineering division of Rosatom, Russia’s state atomic energy corporation.

In a March TV interview, Rosatom’s director general, Alexei Likhachev, stated, “The objective for this year is to submit project documentation. We expect the permit in 2022 and the full-scale rollout of work. I want to note that we have reached agreement and understanding with our Egyptian partners on all the complexities and aspects of this project’s implementation.”

Past progress: In November 2015, Egypt and Russia signed an intergovernmental agreement to collaborate on the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant consisting of four 1,200-MWe Rosatom reactors at the El Dabaa site, located in Egypt’s Matrouh region on the Mediterranean coast.

The project’s notice-to-proceed contracts were signed in December 2017 by Mohamed Shaker, Egypt’s minister of electricity and renewable energy, and Likhachev. Under the contracts, Rosatom would build four VVER-1200 units at El Dabaa and supply nuclear fuel throughout the plant’s operational lifetime. In addition, Rosatom would assist its Egyptian partners in plant operation and maintenance for the first 10 years of operation.

In March 2019, ENRRA issued a site approval permit for the project.