Egypt will finalize a $26 billion deal this month with Russian state nuclear company Rosatom, which will build a nuclear plant in Egypt, Muhammad Shaker, Egypt’s minister of electricity and renewable energy, said late last week in a Non-Aligned Movement News Network article.
Egypt’s nuclear program begin in the 1950s and has produced only research reactors.
German engineering company Siemens has been training 600 Egyptian engineers and technicians on how to maintain and operate the nuclear facility when it begins operations.
Shaker said the plant is expected to be operational nine years after the final agreement is signed. Shaker also said the country’s energy-generation capacity has increased by approximately 6.8 gigawatts of electricity through grid enhancements taken on by the government. Shaker said another project in development will provide an additional 200 megawatts of electrical capacity through wind power generation facilities.
A report from Russia’s TASS news agency said the plant will consist of four nuclear reactors with a capacity of approximately 4,800 megawatts combined. In February 2015, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin and Egyptian officials reached agreements that would foster cooperation in the nuclear energy industry.
