Rosatom will start building the second power unit at El Dabaa NPP in Egypt on November 19, two months ahead of schedule. Alexander Korchagin, Senior Vice President of Rosatom's engineering division, Atomstroyexport JSC (ASE JSC), told TASS correspondent on Tuesday in Sharm el-Sheikh at an event within the framework of the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-27).
"On November 19, we will start concreting the foundations of the second power unit, which is good to note, we are starting this ahead of schedule. According to the schedule, we were planning to do this pouring of Unit 2 in January. This is a good start for us to maintain this pace," said Korchagin.
Rapid development
The El Dabaa nuclear power plant project will be developing rapidly in the near future, Deputy Director General of Rosatom Kirill Komarov said Tuesday.
"Egypt is currently building one unit at a four-unit nuclear power plant (El Dabaa), but very soon we will see a very powerful development of this project here," Komarov said at an event on the contribution of nuclear technology to Africa's sustainable development challenges during the 27th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-27) in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Green energy
El Dabaa will make a major contribution to the world's green energy future, Komarov said.
"The first nuclear plant on the African continent under the Rosatom project, which will provide 30 million TWh per year of clean, carbon-free energy to Egypt, will prevent 15 million tons of carbon emissions annually - a serious contribution to the green energy future of the world," Komarov said.
The first deputy general director of Rosatom emphasized that nuclear power is a major focus at this year's global climate summit. "At the COP-27 summit, we feel that the trend we first detected a year ago in Glasgow continues. Finally, the idea that nuclear power plays an important role in achieving a carbon-free energy future for humanity has taken hold of the masses. First of all, we are hearing more and more talk about this in climate forums. Secondly, we see a lot of practical steps," said Komarov.
The interlocutor of the agency underlined that last year a number of important events for atomic energetics took place: the European Commission decided to include it into the green taxonomy defining it as an environmentally clean energy source, a number of countries decided to develop nuclear technologies. "We see a number of countries in Europe that are consistently moving towards nuclear development, such as Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland. We see a huge number of countries on the African continent that have a huge interest in nuclear technology," Komarov stressed.
Non-energy technologies
Rosatom is actively promoting non-energy technologies and innovative products on the global market, Komarov said.
"There are many new products that we are actively promoting, ranging from wind power, electricity storage to modern materials, such as carbon fiber, which is used in aircraft and automobile construction," Komarov noted. "The line of high-tech innovative products [at Rosatom] is large, and we are happy to work with all the countries [in the Middle East] region on the whole set of projects and products," he added.
Rosatom in Egypt
On July 20, Rosatom began construction of the El Dabaa nuclear power plant. This is Egypt's first nuclear power plant and Rosatom's first major project in Africa.
The NPP will be built 3.5 km from the Mediterranean Sea in the town of El Dabaa in Matrouh Governorate. Russia will build four blocks of the plant with VVER-1200 reactors until 2028 and will supply nuclear fuel during the whole life cycle of the NPP (60 years) as well as provide services on personnel training and maintenance and repair during 10 years after each block is launched. The contract also provides for the construction of the first module of dry container storage of spent nuclear fuel by 2028. Egypt expects the NPP to reach full capacity by 2030.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
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Based on materials from TASS