El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant

El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant
El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant
Official name	محطة الضبعة للطاقة النووية
Country	Egypt
Location	El Dabaa, North Coast
Coordinates	31°2′39″N 28°29′52″E / 31.04417°N 28.49778°E
Status	Under construction
Construction began	July 20, 2022
Commission date	2026; 2 years' time (expected)
Construction cost	US$28.75 billion
Owner	Nuclear Power Plants Authority
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	VVER-1200
Reactor supplier	Rosatom
Cooling source	Mediterranean Sea
Power generation
Units under const.	4 × 1,200 MW
Nameplate capacity	4,800 MW
External links
Website	nppa.gov.eg
	[edit on Wikidata]

El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant is the first nuclear power plant planned for Egypt and will be located at El Dabaa, Matrouh Governorate, Egypt, about 320 kilometers northwest of Cairo.^[5]^[6] The plant will have four VVER-1200 reactors, making Egypt the only country in the region to have a Generation III+ reactor.^[7]^[8]

History

On November 19, 2015 Egypt and Russia signed an initial agreement, under which Russia will build and finance Egypt’s first nuclear power plant.^[7] In December 2017 preliminary contracts for the construction of four VVER-1200 units were signed in the presence of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.^[8] Rosatom will build the plant, and supply Russian nuclear fuel for its entire life cycle.^[9]

The Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA) submitted applications for construction permits for units 1 and 2 in June 2021, and applications for units 3 and 4 in December 2021.^[9] The permit for unit 1 was issued by the Egyptian Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority (ENRRA) in June 2022.^[9] First safety-related concrete was poured in July 2022.^[10] In October 2022, ENRRA gave construction approval for unit 2,^[11] whose construction started on 19 November.^[12]

In 2022, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power was contracted to construct 82 ancillary buildings and structures. Doosan Enerbility was sub-contracted to build the turbine buildings and related structures for about $1.2 billion.^[13]

Finance

The project will cost US$28.75 billion of which Russia will finance 85% as a state loan of US$25 billion and Egypt will provide the remaining 15% in the form of installments. The Russian loan has a repayment period of 22 years, with an annual interest rate of 3%.^[1]^[14]

Reactor data

Unit	Type	Net Capacity	Gross Capacity	Construction start	Notes
El Dabaa 1	VVER-1200/529	1100 MW	1200 MW	2022-07-20	^[15]
El Dabaa 2	VVER-1200/529	1100 MW	1200 MW	2022-11-19	^[16]
El Dabaa 3	VVER-1200/529	1100 MW	1200 MW	2023-05-03^[17]
El Dabaa 4	VVER-1200/529	1100 MW	1200 MW	2024-01-23^[18]