Dabaa gets the regulatory thumbs-up: Russian state nuclear company Rosatom has received a permit from our nuclear authority to begin building the 4.8 GW Dabaa nuclear power plant, a statement by Rosatom read.

Next step: construction. The permit “[paves] the way for the launch of full-scale construction” at Dabaa, Rosatom Director-General Alexey Likhachev said. No timeline was given for the start of the construction work, though Likhachev in January said it would start “tentatively” in July, adding that the company expected to break ground on the plant as soon as it received the permits. Rosatom last month started manufacturing equipment for the plant.

Background: Construction work on Dabaa was set to begin in the second half of 2020 and complete by the 2028-2029 fiscal year, but covid-related disruptions pushed the expected completion date to 2030. Rosatom was contracted in 2015 to construct the USD 30 bn plant, 85% of which is being financed through a USD 25 bn loan from Russia that Egypt should begin repaying in October 2029.