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Egypt to Start Building 1st Nuclear Reactor this Year

Site of the Nuclear Plant (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Site of the Nuclear Plant (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Egypt to Start Building 1st Nuclear Reactor this Year

Site of the Nuclear Plant (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Site of the Nuclear Plant (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Egypt plans to start constructing the first power unit at El-Dabaa nuclear power plant in July of this year, Rosatom Group CEO Alexey Likhachev announced on Tuesday.

Cairo “wants to do everything so that the first concrete is poured in the summer, around July," Likhachev said, according to Russian news agencies, Sputnik and Russia Today.

Chairman of the Nuclear Power Plants Authority of Egypt (NPPA) Dr. Amgad Al-Wakeel revealed Monday that the green light to establish the first and second units is expected to be issued in the second half of 2022, after presenting all the necessary documents to obtain a construction permit and handing them over to the Egyptian Nuclear and Radiological Control Authority.

Speaking on the sidelines of Expo Dubai, he said El-Dabaa NPP belongs to the advanced third generation (Gen-3+) reactor technology, which is the most advanced technology to date that is characterized with the highest safety levels.

He said such reactors follow the “defense in depth” philosophy, which is based on the use of multiple physical barriers to prevent leaks of radioactive materials into the environment, as well as on employing passive safety systems that do not need power source to be actuated.

The reactor could withstand commercial aircrafts crash, tsunami waves, earthquakes and tornadoes, Al-Wakeel noted, adding that the project would develop the Egyptian industry, even of non-nuclear components, by increasing local participation to 35 percent for the fourth unit.

In previous comments, Egypt’s Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, Mohammed Shaker, confirmed that the first unit of El-Dabaa nuclear power plant is expected to be completed by 2026.

Last December, Al-Wakeel said the authority is committed to the timetable for implementing its nuclear program to generate electricity with a capacity of 4,800 megawatts in El-Dabaa, pointing out that the reactors will be operated at full capacity in 2030.

Egypt and Rosatom had signed on December 11, 2017, several documents to put into force the commercial contracts for the construction of the El-Dabaa plant.

According to the contracts, Rosatom will not only build El-Dabaa NPP on the Mediterranean coast, but it will also conduct personnel training and will assist its Egyptian partners in the operation and maintenance of the plant for the first ten years of its operation.

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Arab World

Security Council Urges ‘Realistic’ Solution to Sahara Conflict

A view of Council members voting in favor of the resolution (UN)
A view of Council members voting in favor of the resolution (UN)
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Security Council Urges ‘Realistic’ Solution to Sahara Conflict

A view of Council members voting in favor of the resolution (UN)
A view of Council members voting in favor of the resolution (UN)

The UN Security Council on Thursday called for a “realistic” political solution in the contested territory of Western Sahara as it passed a resolution extending the UN mission there for another year.
The US-sponsored resolution renewed the mandate of MINURSO, also known as the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, until October 31, 2025, AFP reported.
The resolution passed with support from 12 of the Security Council's 15 member states; Algeria -- which submitted two rejected amendments -- refused to vote in protest, while Russia and Mozambique abstained.
In a statement on the resolution, the Security Council emphasized “the importance of aligning the strategic focus of MINURSO and orienting resources of the United Nations to this end” for the former Spanish colony.
Considered a “non-autonomous territory” by the United Nations, Western Sahara covers approximately 266,000 square kilometers north of Mauritania.
The territory, which contains valuable mineral deposits and long stretches of coastline fisheries, is largely controlled by Morocco.
For decades, it has constituted a dispute between Rabat and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front.
Morocco had proposed an autonomy plan that would provide for a degree of self-government for Western Sahara under its sovereignty. In return, the Polisario has called for a referendum on self-determination, under the auspices of the United Nations, as stipulated in the 1991 ceasefire agreement.
Last Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron promised in Rabat his country’s “diplomatic” commitment to push the Moroccan solution on Western Sahara at the UN as well as within the European Union.
“We will act by engaging diplomatically to convince that the Moroccan solution is the only one within the European Union, at the United Nations,” he said in front of the French community in Morocco.
Earlier last month, the UN envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura has proposed dividing the territory between Morocco and the Polisario Front in order to resolve the decades-old conflict. However, his plans were swiftly rejected by the Polisario that said the plan fails to “enshrine” the Sahrawi people's right to self determination.
Sidi Omar, the Polisario representative to the UN, said in a post on X that the movement strongly affirms its total and categorical rejection of any proposals or initiatives, which do not fully enshrine and ensure the inalienable, non-negotiable and imprescriptible right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence or do not respect the territorial integrity of Western Sahara.