Russia and Egypt will on Monday, sign an agreement for state-owned Rosatom to build a $21bn nuclear power plant in the north African country.
Egypt’s President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said the two countries would sign the agreement as part of a visit by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to the country on Monday, in comments reported.
“I am pleased to note that our economic ties are developing at a fairly high rate. We really have a lot of good projects ahead [including] the nuclear power plant,” Mr Putin said.
The Dabaa nuclear plant, with four reactor units and capacity of 5 gigawatts, is planned to be completed by 2029 at a total financing cost of $21bn, said Alexei Likhachyov, chairman of Russia’s state-owned nuclear operator Rosatom.
Moscow and Cairo in 2015 agreed to the nuclear plant initiative, including a loan from Russia. Mr Likhachyov on Monday said that the Russian loan is expected to provide 85 per cent of the funding, while Egypt will provide the remainder.
The company, which is talks to build more nuclear power plants in the world than any of its western rivals, has agreed to service the plant’s reactors for 60 years.
