Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker said that Egypt has contracted with Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosatom, to build four nuclear reactors at the Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant, at a cost of $21.3bn.

A Russian loan worth $25bn will cover 85% of the total costs while the remaining 15% will be provided by Egyptian banks. The cost also includes the interests of the Russian loan and the cost of contracting a foreign consultant for the project.

The total cost of the plant is very low when compared to conventional power stations.

Shaker added that the price of nuclear power is 80 piastres per million thermal units, while natural gas costs more than $7 per million thermal units, which saves a lot of money. Shaker has also asserted that Egypt gave the starting signal to implement the four contracts.

He pointed out that the total cost of implementing Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant is actually low, taking into consideration the cost of applying high safety measures and building research centres at the plant. Shaker refused to compare the cost of electricity production from Siemens stations with the production from the Dabaa plant.

The minister revealed that Egypt is currently negotiating with Syria to establish an electricity linkage between the two countries with investments of $1.8bn, of which Egypt will provide $600m while Syria will pay $1.2bn.

He added that the ministry is also studying the establishment of another electricity linkage with Congo, in the context of Egypt’s interest to increase cooperation with African countries that have strong production capabilities.

Shaker noted that the Ministries of Electricity and Environment are in talks to set an attractive tariff for the production of energy from waste within a maximum of two months.