Works to establish Egypt's first nuclear plant in Dabaa, west of Alexandria, will start ‘within weeks', said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a speech in front of the newly-convened parliament. Sisi arrived has given his first speech in front of the newly convened House of Representatives Saturday at Cairo's Downtown parliament building. Earlier, Moscow and Cairo signed an agreement last November for Russia to build a nuclear power plant in Egypt, with Russia extending a loan to Egypt to cover the cost of construction. A spokesman for Russia's state-owned nuclear firm Rosatom said the plant, Egypt's first, would be built at Dabaa in the north of the country and was expected to be completed by 2022. The project would involve the building of a 'third-generation' plant with four reactors, Sisi said in an earlier statement. He also said that the project is "peaceful" and aims to produce electricity. First nuclear plant "The Dabaa nuclear plant will be the largest Russian-Egyptian project since the Aswan dam," Sergey Kiriyenko, the head of Russia's state-owned nuclear firm Rosatomalong told the media after signing November deal, referring to the High dam built in the 60s. "It will mark a truly new chapter in the history of our bilateral relations." "The plant will make Egypt the regional leader in the field of nuclear technologies and the only country in the region that will have a generation 3+ plant," he added. The plant, expected to be constructed within 12 years, will consist of four nuclear power units, 1,200 megawatt (MW) each. In a televised speech following the signature of the deal, the Egyptian president said that the cost of the station would be covered by a loan that will last for 35 years through the period of the production of electricity from the Dabaa station. The Egyptian president also made clear that Egypt is committed to the international conventions prohibiting proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear plants. All countries in the Middle East, excluding Israel, are parties to the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, whose 191 signatories have agreed to nuclear disarmament for countries with nuclear weapons, non-proliferation in those that don't have them, and the peaceful use of nuclear energy everywhere. Egypt put forth the idea for a weapons-of-mass-destruction-free zone in the Middle East in 1990 and has frequently since then called for nuclear disarmament and the elimination of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. All ministers in the cabinet attended the signing of the deal along with former prime minister Ibrahim Mahlab.
