Rosatom Finally Sets Up First Nuclear Power Unit In Egypt

• Khalid Al Mansoor
• . July 23, 2022
• . Update: July 23, 2022 11:48 pm
• 1,069 Views
• Shares

Egypt–Egypt’s economy is going places as it has finally set up its own nuclear powerplant, in collaboration with Russian owned state-owned nuclear energy corporation, Rosatom. The $30 billion nuclear power station is now functional after five years of having signed an agreement with the Egyptian government.

The recent foundation stone laying down ceremony was an historic one for Egypt at least, as a nation which is working hard to develop its own self-reliance and energy resources. It has become of the rare Middle Eastern nations to be supplying energy to all of Europe since sanctions limited access to Russian resources.

In 2017, the agreement for the nuclear power plant was signed. The photo op published then had the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin along with Egypt’s electricity and renewable energy minister, Mohamed Shaker, shaking hands with Alexei Likkhachev, the director general of Russia’s Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, after signing the bilateral agreement in Cairo.

Now, the deal has seen fruition. The project’s completion comes at a time when Iran is moving gradually towards more open use of nuclear materials, much to the tension of the Western world. It also comes at a time when the Western world doesn’t hold a very good feeling towards Russia and its decision to go on war with Ukraine.

But the project looks like it is signaling towards the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s readiness to maintain and expand ties with Russia, despite the host of sanctions imposed by Cairo’s western friends and backers, led by the US, against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Out of the four, the first power unit has received permission from the Egyptian regulator to be build and this 1500 MW unit will be ready by 2024 to start producing green fuel powered electricity.