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Wednesday, 19 January 2022

Rosatom on track to break ground on Dabaa in July

Construction on the Dabaa nuclear power plant is on track to begin “this summer, tentatively in July,” the director of Russia’s state-owned Rosatom, General Alexey Likhachev, told TASS. The timeline matches what we were told by Egyptian Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority (ENRRA) spokesperson Karim Al Adham last year, after covid disruptions caused a two-year delay to the Rosatom-constructed project.

Next step: construction permits. Rosatom submitted its documents to the ENRRA in early January, which the company said was ahead of schedule. It expects to break ground on the plant as soon as it receives the construction permits back from the authority.

Background: Construction work on Egypt’s first nuclear power plant 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.

About the plant: Russian state-owned nuclear company Rosatom was contracted in 2015 to construct the 4.8 GW plant. The facility will cost somewhere around USD 30 bn, 85% of which is being financed through a USD 25 bn loan from Russia, with Egypt scheduled to begin repaying the sum in October 2029.

Reminder- We could see an announcement on South Korean participation in Dabaa this week: President Moon Jae-in, who is visiting from today until Friday, will reportedly discuss the topic with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.

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