Egyptian and Russian leaders prepare for Dabaa

05 September 2017

Egypt's president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Egypt to witness the signing of contracts enabling the start of construction of a nuclear power plant in Dabaa, northwest of Cairo. The Kremlin's press service said yesterday that the two heads of state had met during the BRICS summit in China's Xiamen province, where they said their countries had completed two years of talks on the project.

Russia and Egypt signed an intergovernmental agreement in November 2015 to collaborate in the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant equipped with four 1200 MWe units. The agreement includes provision of a Russian state-backed loan of $25 billion for the $30 billion project. The Russian state loan will cover about 85% of the plant's construction costs, with Egypt to raise the remainder from private investors. The project is to be completed within 12 years and Egypt will start its repayment of the loan at an interest rate of 3% from October 2029.

El-Sissi said the procedures for agreeing a contract for the construction of the plant had been completed. He thanked Putin for their meeting and their discussion of cooperation between the two countries "in all areas".

At the summit, Putin invited BRICS countries to create a common platform for energy research, including information and scientific exchanges.

The ninth and latest BRICS summit started on 3 September and ended today. BRICS is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News