What Happened: The Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli remarked during the opening session of the fifth Arab Forum on the Prospects of Nuclear Power for Electricity Generation and Seawater Desalination, that nuclear energy is one of the strategic options in his country’s energy mix necessary to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015.
Why It Matters: Egypt’s executive-level support for nuclear power has three implications. First, it reaffirms the executive level political support of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government for the realization of nuclear power development in Egypt. Second, it presents an opportunity for Egypt’s nuclear power development stakeholders to back government decision-makers on the journey to deploying the country’s first nuclear power reactor. Third, it serves as a landmark example of how to demonstrate executive-level political support for the other dozen African countries at varying levels of nuclear energy programs. When the reactor is deployed successfully, Egypt will become the second African state to operate a nuclear power reactor after South Africa’s Koeberg 1 (1984) and Koeberg 2 (1985).
Background: Egypt set up its Atomic Commission in 1955, established a Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA) in 1976, and selected the El Dabaa site on the Mediterranean coast for the development of nuclear power in 1983. Egypt announced its decision for the construction of the plant in 2007. The site was approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in August 2010, but the development was halted due to the 2011 Egyptian revolution and disputes with Dabaa locals. On 19 November 2015, Egypt and Russia signed the preliminary contracts for the construction and financing of the project.
On December 11, 2017, during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Cairo, the two countries signed the contracts to build four VVER-1200 nuclear reactors. One of the contracts stipulates that Russia’s Rosatom Corporation will build a nuclear power plant at El-Dabaa, about 140 kilometers west of Alexandria. The plant will include four light-water reactors for electricity production, each with a 1,200-megawatt output.
In another contract, Egypt and Rosatom concluded that a storage depot would be built beside the nuclear plant to hold spent nuclear fuel from the reactors before it is sent to Russia for reprocessing. Test runs of the first reactor are expected in 2022 and its full commissioning is anticipated in 2026. Rosatom estimates that the project will be completed in 2028 or 2029.
Russia will also build factories in Egypt for the domestic manufacture of nuclear plant components, bringing in the required expertise; and Rosatom will service the plant for 60 years. According to reports, the project will cost about $30 billion, Russia will fund about 85 percent of the cost, with interest of three percent being paid annually, starting immediately after Egypt receives the first installment of the loan, which will be repaid over a period of 22 years. Egypt will raise the remaining 15 percent of the cost of the project from private investors.
Author: Hubert Foy (AFRICSIS), Contributor: Tambe Harry Agbor (AFRICSIS)