All You Need to Know about Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant

Egyptian Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and his Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin launched the construction of a new unit at Egypt's El-Dabaa nuclear power plant on Tuesday. The construction is being carried out by the Russian state corporation Rosatom.

The El-Dabaa nuclear power plant will consist of four power units with a combined capacity of 4.8 gigawatts. Egypt needs the plant due to increasing demand for energy and electricity, a continuously growing population, insufficient primary energy sources, and limited potable water resources. The plant is being built 6 kilometers away from El-Dabaa town in the Egyptian governorate of Matrouh.

Once fully operational by 2031, the plant is expected to power approximately four million Egyptian homes and eliminate nearly 14 million tonnes of carbon emissions per annum. Nuclear power is a low-emission source of electricity and accounts for almost 10 percent of electricity generation globally.

The project is expected to boost the country’s economy and industrial development by creating up to 50,000 jobs. Egypt will benefit from the Russian experience in establishing nuclear plants since Russia has a long and distinguished experience in this area. 

The VVER-1200 reactor, which will be built in El Dabaa area by ROSATOM, consists of two buildings. The main building includes the nuclear heart enclosure and associated nuclear systems such as a refueling machine and diesel generators to save electricity if lost from the external feeder source, steam generators and reactor control systems (this building is called the nuclear island). The other building houses turbines and facilities (called the turbine island).