Egypt has reported progress on the construction of its first nuclear power plant (NPP), El Dabaa, located about 320 km north of Cairo. Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation Rosatom has delivered a core catcher for El Dabaa’s Unit 3, World Nuclear News (WNN) reported on July 18.

According to the media outlet, a 2000-tonne capacity crane has already been installed on-site, with Rosatom also reporting that 75% of the blanks for Unit 1 reactor equipment have now been manufactured at Rosatom’s AEM-Spetsstal machine-building division.

Spetsstal has confirmed that “the blanks undergo several levels of careful control of the conformity of the metal properties with the specified parameters, determining the required level of reliability and safety of the equipment for the manufacture of which they will be used.” A Spetsstal’s factory in Petrozavodsk welded the circulation pipes.  

On July 1, the 6.1-metre diameter core catcher for Unit 3 arrived at El Dabaa from Russia. According to WNN, the three main parts of the reactor core trap have a total weight of 480 tonnes.

Amged El-Wakeel, chairman of Egypt’s Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA), announced on July 2 that the core catcher would be installed with the giant winch crane in October 2024. El-Wakeel highlighted its importance as part of the reactor’s passive safety system, explaining that it retained molten core fragments and prevented their release beyond the containment area.

When completed, the El Dabaa NPP will consist of four VVER-1200 units, or pressurised water reactors (PWRs), with a total capacity of 4.8 GW. Once completed, the NPP is expected to generate up to 50% of Egypt's electricity. The four reactors will mimic those operating at the Leningrad and Novovoronezh NPPs in Russia and the Ostrovets NPP in Belarus.

According to WNN, Rosatom built the concrete for the four units concurrently. Construction on Unit 1 began in July 2022, and the final concrete for Unit 4 was completed in January 2024.

Once Rosatom finished the outer concrete for Unit 1 PWR, construction of the inner containment began, and was completed in May 2024. Unit 1 is expected to begin commercial operations in 2026, and the remaining three PWRs will be commissioned in 2029, says WNN.

El Dabaa is Rosatom’s first major NPP in Africa. Rosatom is constructing the NPP according to the contract package signed in 2017 between the Egyptian and Russian governments. The project is set to boost Egypt’s economy and industrial development by creating up to 50,000 jobs.

The contracts stipulate that Rosatom must build the plant, supply nuclear fuel for the NPP’s life cycle, and train personnel. Rosatom will maintain the plant for the first ten years of operation, construct a storage facility, and provide containers for used nuclear fuel.