Egypt will sign the final agreement for a nuclear power project, at an estimated cost of approximately $26 billion, with a Russian company by mid-January 2016.
The project, which will be built by Russia’s Rosatom nuclear agency, will start generating electric power nine years after the date of signing, according to Muhammad Shaker, Egypt’s minister of electricity and renewable energy.
The minister denied reports that Egyptian authorities have issued a gag order on this particular project, saying such reports are unfounded.
It is noteworthy that German company Siemens has been training 600 Egyptian technicians and engineers, in addition to the 50 engineers who are being trained by Rosatom in the field of nuclear energy and atomic sciences.
Speaking on the status of Egypt’s electric power and energy generation capacity, the minister said 2015 saw another 6.8GW added to the national electric grid under investments amounting to EGP38.5bn.
He added that his ministry is working on projects to renovate and increase the capacity of existing power plants in addition to generating 200MW of electricity from wind power, in cooperation with KfW Development Bank and the European Investment Bank.
Agencies
5 January
