The presence of Russian nuclear technology in Egypt will modernize the country’s industry, Mohammed Shaker, Egypt’s minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy said on Tuesday, according to Egypt Today.
The al-Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant, Egypt’s first nuclear site developed in cooperation with the Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom, is currently under construction.
During the opening session of the second international forum of the Nuclear Industry Suppliers Forum in Cairo this week, Shaker stated that Egyptian participation in the project will reach 20 percent for the construction of the first nuclear unit, and 35 percent for the construction of the fourth nuclear unit.
Rosatom’s deputy general director for development and international business, Kirill Komarov, said on Tuesday on the sidelines of the event that the al-Dabaa plant will be the “safest in the world”.
He added that Russia has been transferring the technology of several industries to Egypt since the 1960s, and has trained many Egyptian students in the nuclear field.
Komarov asserted that Russia will construct the plant with the Water-Water energetic reactors (VVER-1200), and provide training for the program’s Egyptian staff.
The Director of Rosatom’s construction division, Atomstroyexport in Egypt, Anatoli Kovtunov said that “we need a project to be proud of like the High Dam.”
Moscow and Cairo signed an agreement in November 2015 to build the Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant, which is expected to be completed by 2022.
Russia has funded Egypt a $25 billion loan to construct and operate the plant. Egypt will pay an interest rate of three percent annually, after a 10-year grace period. The number of workers at the plant could exceed 10,000, according to government estimates.
