Rosatom said on Monday a power station it will build in Egypt will cost up to $21 billion and is expected to be finished by 2028-2029, Reuters reported.
The Russian state nuclear company said in a statement that its Director General Alexey Likhachev and Egypt’s Minister of Electricity And Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker signed the notices to proceed the contracts for the construction of the El Dabaa nuclear power plant.
The signing ceremony was held in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Egyptian counterpart 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, the statement said.
Rosatom will also conduct personnel training and will assist its Egyptian partners in the operation and maintenance of the El Dabaa NPP for the first ten 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. We offered our partners in Egypt a unique comprehensive agreement that spans the power plant’s entire life cycle, i.e. 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,” said Director General of Rosatom Alexey Likhachev.