Egypt’s Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA) has awarded Australia’s Worley a consultancy contract for the country’s first nuclear power plant. The plant, to comprise four reactors with a combined generating capacity of 4.8GW, will be built by Russia’s Rosatom on the Mediterranean coast at Dabaa 170km west of Alexandria. Worley says in a 30 December announcement that its work will include technical support to NPPA in engineering and design review, project management, procurement, construction management, training and commissioning.
Egypt’s Ministry of Electricity signed an agreement with Rosatom in late 2017 to go ahead with the project. The first reactor is scheduled for start-up in 2026 and all four are expected to be fully operational in 2029. Construction of the first reactor is expected to begin in 2020. Dabaa will mainly be funded by a $25bn loan from Moscow covering 85% of the project cost of $29.4bn, with Cairo repaying the loan over 22 years beginning in 2029 (MEES, 15 December 2017). (CONTINUED - 156 WORDS)