Egyptian president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi said the construction of the country’s first nuclear plant would begin next month. “We have reached an unprecedented level in the development of our national power grid. We are organizing to face the upcoming growth of demand in energy and it is in this framework that we signed the contract for the construction of the Dabaa nuclear plant. Construction works for the plant should start in the coming weeks,” President Al Sisi said.

The establishment of this plant is the fruit of an agreement signed with Russia. It will be carried out by the Russian nuclear energy firm, Rosatom, and completed by 2022. The plant will include four third generation reactors. Cost of the project was not revealed but Russia, via a loan repayable over 35 years, will finance its implementation.

Egypt launched the Dabaa nuclear project since 1980 but it was abandoned in 1986 after Tchermobyl’s disaster and it was only in 2006 that it was back on the table.

Gwladys Johnson