South Korean company Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) will construct the ‘turbine islands’ for Egypt’s first nuclear power plant (NPP), at El Dabaa, on the country’s Mediterranean coast, some 320 km northwest of Cairo. NPPs are subdivided into ‘nuclear islands containing the reactors and their associated systems and infrastructure, turbine islands, with the electricity-generating turbines and their associated systems and infrastructure', and the ‘balance of plant’, which is basically the offices and other administrative and personnel support facilities.

The contract was actually signed between KHNP and Russian company Atomstroyexport, a member of Russia’s State-owned integrated nuclear group Rosatom. El Dabaa is being built by the Rosatom group, under contracts which entered into effect in 2017. In terms of these contracts, Rosatom will also supply all the nuclear fuel required by the El Dabaa NPP throughout its life. The Russian group will also provide training for Egyptian personnel and maintenance for the NPP during the first decade of its operation.

“Building upon our experience acquired in the UAE [United Arab Emirates], KHNP will do its best for the successful implementation of the El Dabaa NPP project,” affirmed KHNP CEO Jooho Whang. This contract was the first large nuclear-related export contract that KHNP had secured since its deal to build the Barakah NPP in the UAE, 13 years ago. (Two of the four reactors at Barakah are now operating commercially and the third should join them later this year.) 

Winning the El Dabaa contract was, he said, a “significant achievement for Korea”. The contract will involve the construction of about 80 buildings and structures, plus the procurement and supply of equipment and materials for the turbine islands.

The Egyptian NPP will be composed of four Rosatom VVER-1200 reactors. The VVER is the Russian version of the pressurised water reactor. El Dabaa’s reactors will be similar to those currently operating at Russia’s Leningrad NPP (near the city of St Petersburg) and Voronezhnezh NPP, and at Belarus’ Ostrovets NPP.