Construction progress at Egypt’s Dabaa nuclear power plant has reached roughly 38% of the planned work, according to a person familiar with the project, marking a key step toward bringing the country’s first commercial nuclear facility online to support long-term power security.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday took part in a ceremony to place the containment structure for the plant’s first reactor unit — a milestone in the project’s development.
The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the details publicly, said the first reactor unit is scheduled to begin operations in 36 to 42 months, supplying electricity to Egypt’s national grid in line with the government’s target of achieving a balanced energy mix by 2030.
Construction activity is expected to accelerate by 5% to 7% during November and December, the person added, as cooperation deepens between Egypt and Russia’s state-owned Rosatom, which is building the plant.
The Dabaa project includes four reactors with a total capacity of 4,800 megawatts, making it Egypt’s first utility-scale nuclear power station. Once the project is completed in 2029, the facility is expected to provide 9% to 11% of the country’s daily electricity consumption.
The government aims to reduce its reliance on natural gas for power generation by 7.2 to 7.7 billion cubic meters per year after all four units come online, the person said.
Speaking via video link, Putin said the pace of work at the site represents “a significant success” in Russian-Egyptian cooperation, adding that the project will help reinforce Egypt’s energy security and support the growth of its economy.
He noted that Russia is providing training and qualification programs for Egyptian nuclear specialists, and said the technologies involved can also be applied in fields such as medicine and agriculture. The Russian president added that his country supports Egypt’s development goals as part of a broader strategic partnership reflected in expanding trade and industrial cooperation.
Egypt and Russia signed a cooperation agreement on Nov. 19, 2015, to build the power plant at an investment cost of $25 billion, financed through a concessional Russian state loan. El-Sisi and Putin later witnessed the signing of the project’s final contracts during the Russian president’s visit to Cairo in December 2017.
