Egypt’s Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker said Monday that intensive meetings are scheduled with Russian officials during the coming days to prepare the final designs for the establishment of a nuclear power plant in the Dabaa area of the country’s northwestern governorate of Matruh.
He added that these designs will be sent to Egypt’s Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority (ENRRA) to issue the licenses to start establishing the plant.
Vice president of Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation Rosatom Sosinen Gregory Ivanovich said in an interview with Akhbar Al-Youm published on Sunday that the full designs will be sent to Egypt within a few days.
Work with establishing Egypt’s first nuclear reactor in the Dabaa nuclear power plant is expected to start after the Christmas holidays when Russian experts return to Egypt.
During a recent trip to Egypt, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a contract with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi to commence the construction of the Dabaa nuclear plant.
The contract was also signed by Egypt’s Minister of Electricity and Alexey Likhachev, Chief Executive of Rosatom.
Rosatom also said the plant, Egypt’s first, is expected to be completed by 2022.
Russia will loan Egypt $25 billion to finance building and operating the plant. Egypt will pay an interest rate of 3 percent annually. Installment payments will begin on October 15, 2029.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
