A source at the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy in Russia announced that experts from Rosatom are currently undertaking preparatory works, including protection from earthquakes in Dabaa nuclear power plant site.
The source pointed out that about 20 experts from Russia are currently working at the site, adding that the Russian specialists, “watching the progress of infrastructure construction process and conducting an analysis of the soil and preparing for the installation of equipment to monitor earthquakes and volcanic activity.”
The source added that it is planned to increase the number of Russian experts working in Dabaa to 50 people until the start of the second phase of the preparatory work.
The source pointed out that it is expected that Egypt announces the conclusion of contracts on the project before the end of 2016. Another source from the Egyption nuclear regulator informed us the agreement would be signed in November.
Note:
Ministry of Energy in Russia
The Ministry of Energy (Minenergo) is a federal executive body responsible for drafting and implementing government policy and legal regulation in the oil and fuel sector, including issues related to the electric power industry, oil production, oil processing, gas, fuel, peat and shale industries, major oil and gas pipelines, oil and gas products, renewable energy sources, development of hydrocarbon fields on the basis of production-sharing agreements, and the petrochemical industry;
providing state services and managing state property in the production and use of oil and fuel resources.
Russia role in Middle East (in brief)
In the summer of 1992, the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran signed a Cooperation Agreement on Peaceful Use of Atomic Energy and Nuclear Power Plant Construction. Russian experts performed unique work.The VVER-1000 (pressurized water reactor) reactor type was chosen for the Iranian nuclear power plant, which had proved its reliability at many plants of Russia and abroad. The works started in 1995. In 2011, the first power generating unit of the Bushehr NPP was connected to the Iranian power grid, and it reached the full capacity in 2012. In November 2014, several documents were signed in Moscow that supplemented the Russian-Iranian Agreement of 1992. Russia and Iran extended interaction in the nuclear field. They decided to construct three additional power generating units at the Bushehr NPP and another four in a different location. In the meantime, the Russian ASE Group that constructed NPPs abroad signed a contract with Iran to construct two power generating units. The ceremonial launch of the work of the Bushehr-2 project took place in September 2016. The launch of the second block of the NPP is expected in Autumn of 2024, the third – in 2026.
One more important point is that Bushehr is the first and the only NPP in the Middle East. Looking at Iran, many other countries of the Middle East have become interested in nuclear power engineering, and each of them is considering possible cooperation with Russia. In Autumn 2013, Rosatom won a tender for the construction of the first NPP in Jordan, which the joint Japanese-French Mitsubishi Heavy Industries – AREVA had put in a bid for. The project’s feasibility study is being developed now, and the finance issues are being discussed. According to available data, Rosatom will be one of the investors. The signing of the construction agreement is expected in late 2017. Meanwhile, the preparation of the construction of Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in Turkey is ongoing. Russia is holding negotiations with Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In total, there are plans to construct 26 nuclear power plants in the region. They will be equipped with 90 reactors by 2030.
