عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Russia Kicks Off Production of Equipment for Egypt’s El-Dabaa NPP

General Director of the Russian major nuclear power corporation Rosatom Alexey Likhachev gives the green light to the production of the reactor pressure vessel for the first unit at Egypt’s El-Dabaa NPP. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
General Director of the Russian major nuclear power corporation Rosatom Alexey Likhachev gives the green light to the production of the reactor pressure vessel for the first unit at Egypt’s El-Dabaa NPP. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
TT
TT

Russia Kicks Off Production of Equipment for Egypt’s El-Dabaa NPP

General Director of the Russian major nuclear power corporation Rosatom Alexey Likhachev gives the green light to the production of the reactor pressure vessel for the first unit at Egypt’s El-Dabaa NPP. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
General Director of the Russian major nuclear power corporation Rosatom Alexey Likhachev gives the green light to the production of the reactor pressure vessel for the first unit at Egypt’s El-Dabaa NPP. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Russia has announced launching the production of the reactor pressure vessel for the first unit at Egypt’s El-Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).

Russia’s state-owned Rosatom is currently implementing Egypt’s first nuclear power plant project near the town of El-Dabaa.

The plant consists of four third-generation reactors with a total capacity of 4,800 megawatts, the first of which is planned to enter service by 2026.

Egypt expects that the NPP will operate at full capacity by 2030.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, the Russian Director of the Dabaa nuclear project, Grigory Sosnin, said that the nuclear reactor technology selected for this project makes it one of the world’s safest and most technologically advanced nuclear plants.

He affirmed that the NPP will contribute significantly to reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

General Director of the Russian major nuclear power corporation Rosatom Alexey Likhachev gave the green light to the production on Sunday.

He stressed that the NPP that will operate in Egypt will not only provide the country with green and sustainable energy for the next 100 years, but it's also considered the birth of an entire sector, a whole industry and an absolutely new level of quality of knowledge and quality of life for the African country.

“That is why today we are launching not only a reactor, but we are launching a new life, a new image of this life in Egypt,” Likhachev said.

In early June, Chairman of the Nuclear Power Plants Authority of Egypt (NPPA) Dr. Amgad Al-Wakeel headed a delegation to Leningrad NPP and Russian engineering factories manufacturing equipment for nuclear power plants within the framework of implementation of Rosatom State Corporation overseas projects.

The delegation attended the ceremony of production launch of blanks for the reactor pressure vessel of Unit 1 of El-Dabaa NPP.

It took place at the industrial site in Kolpino (St. Petersburg), where various equipment for NPPs is manufactured at Rosatom’s order.

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.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Gaza Hospital Shut after Israeli Raid, Director Held

Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, shows the damage inside the hospital, during the ongoing Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, shows the damage inside the hospital, during the ongoing Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
TT
TT

Gaza Hospital Shut after Israeli Raid, Director Held

Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, shows the damage inside the hospital, during the ongoing Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, shows the damage inside the hospital, during the ongoing Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer

An Israeli military raid targeting Hamas militants has forced a major hospital in northern Gaza out of service and led to the detention of its director, the WHO and health officials said Saturday.
The assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital has rendered the facility "useless", further worsening Gaza's severe health crisis, the Palestinian territory's health officials said.
"This morning's raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital has put this last major health facility in north Gaza out of service. Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid," the World Health Organization said overnight on X, referring to the Israeli operation that began in the early hours of Friday.
The WHO said 60 health workers and 25 patients in critical condition, including some on ventilators, reportedly remain in the hospital, AFP reported.
Patients in moderate to severe condition were forced to evacuate to the destroyed, non-functioning Indonesian Hospital, the UN health agency said, adding it was "deeply concerned for their safety".
Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry reported that Israeli forces detained Kamal Adwan Hospital's director, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, along with several medical staff members.
Gaza's civil defense agency said Abu Safiyeh was held alongside its north Gaza chief, Ahmed Hassan al-Kahlout.
The Israeli military did not comment on the detentions.
Ammar al-Barsh, a resident of Jabalia where the military has focused its assault in recent weeks, said the raid on Kamal Adwan and its environs had left dozens of homes in the area in ruins.
"The situation is catastrophic, there is no medical service, no ambulances and no civil defense in the north," Barsh, 50, told AFP.
The army "continues to raid the Kamal Adwan Hospital and the surrounding houses, and we hear gunfire from Israeli drones and artillery shelling", he added.
'Heinous crime'
In the days leading up to the raid, Abu Safiyeh had repeatedly warned about the hospital's precarious situation, accusing Israeli forces of targeting the facility.
On Monday, he issued a statement accusing Israel of targeting the hospital "with the intent to kill and forcibly displace the people inside".
On Thursday, Abu Safiyeh said five staff members of the hospital had been killed in an Israeli strike near the facility.
Since October 6, Israel has intensified its land and air offensive in northern Gaza, saying its goal is to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.
The military said Friday that it was acting on intelligence regarding "terrorist infrastructure and operatives" in the hospital's vicinity.
Before initiating the latest operation near the hospital, the military said its troops had "facilitated the secure evacuation of civilians, patients, and medical personnel".
Hamas has denied claims its operatives were present at the hospital, accusing Israeli forces of storming it on Friday.
"The enemy's lies about the hospital aim to justify the heinous crime committed by the occupation army today, involving the evacuation and burning of all hospital departments as part of a plan for extermination and forced displacement," Hamas said in a statement.
Gaza's health ministry had earlier quoted Abu Safiyeh reporting that the military had "set on fire all surgery departments of the hospital".
Abu Safiyeh said the military had also "evacuated the entire medical staff and displaced people".
"There are a large number of injuries among the medical team."
'Death sentence'
Iran, which backs Hamas, "strongly condemned the brutal attack", with a foreign ministry statement calling it "the latest example of war crimes, crimes against humanity, (and) gross violations of international law and norms".
The Israeli military has regularly accused Hamas of using hospitals as command and control centers for attacks against its forces throughout the war.
Hamas has denied the accusations.
The WHO reiterated its call for a ceasefire.
"This raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital comes after escalating restrictions on access for WHO and partners, and repeated attacks on or near the facility since early October," the WHO said.
"Such hostilities and the raids are undoing all our efforts and support to keep the facility minimal functional. The systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza is a death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of health care."
Meanwhile, Hamas's media center reported "massive Israeli air and artillery strikes in Beit Hanoun", in northern Gaza .
The Israeli military says it has killed hundreds of militants since the stepped-up assault in northern Gaza began on October 6, while rescuers in the area say thousands of civilians have died in the sweeping offensive.
Gaza civil defense also reported that in a separate Israeli strike in central Gaza at least nine Palestinians were killed on Saturday.
The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel last year, which resulted in 1,208 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,436 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.