Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday witnessed, through video conference, the installation of the reactor pressure vessel for Unit 1 of Egypt’s first nuclear power plant.
The installation is a milestone that both sides hailed as strengthening strategic co-operation in the field of peaceful nuclear energy.
The ceremony included the signing of a nuclear fuel supply order for the El Dabaa nuclear power plant, which is being built by Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosatom, about 300km north-west of Cairo on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast in Matrouh governorate.
The installation of the reactor pressure vessel marked the transition of the project from the construction phase to the core phase of assembly and commissioning, officials from both countries said.
Once completed, the El Dabaa plant will have four 1,200-megawatt units equipped with third-generation VVER-1200 pressurised-water reactors supplied by Rosatom.
The project’s framework agreements, finalised in 2017, also provide for fuel supply, personnel training, and spent-fuel storage support over the plant’s initial years of operation.
The installation of the reactor pressure vessel, a key safety component, coincided with Egypt’s fifth annual Nuclear Energy Day, which commemorates the signing of the agreement for the construction and operation of the plant on November 19, 2015.
Mr El Sisi’s spokesman said it reflected “the depth of strategic relations between the two countries and the continuation of large-scale co-operation projects, from the building of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s to the national project of establishing the El Dabaa plant.”
Speaking at Wednesday’s ceremony, Mr Putin expressed appreciation for President El Sisi’s “close attention … not only to our flagship co-operative project in the field of peaceful nuclear energy, but also to the overall expansion of our multifaceted contacts”.
He added, “We fully share this approach and strongly support the further development of our partnership with friendly Egypt”.
Rosatom director general Alexey Likhachev, who gave a speech at the virtual ceremony, said that work was under way on 222 locations across the El Dabaa site, employing about 1,700 Egyptian specialists.
Egypt's Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA) said the reactor pressure vessel arrived at the El Dabaa site on October 21. The 330-tonne vessel, manufactured at the Izhora plant of Rosatom’s Mechanical Engineering Division, was shipped from St Petersburg on October 1, the authority said.
NPPA chairman Sherif Helmy said the delivery was an important milestone in the project and “reflected efficient co-operation of our international team”.
