Egypt's Sabbour Consulting Group has won a mandate to design the first phase of the country's first nuclear power plant, Dabaa. Sabbour Consulting is also competing with two other engineering consultancy firms to carry out the designs of the second phase of Dabaa plant, Ahmed Sabbour, Al Ahly's Managing Director, told Amwal Al Ghad on Monday. Egypt and Russia signed an agreement a week earlier to start work on Dabaa plant during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the country. The construction of the 4,800 megawatt (MW) capacity plant, which is supposed to be built at Dabaa about 130 km (80.7 miles) northwest of Cairo is expected to be completed within seven years. It is set to have four VVER-1200 reactors, making Egypt the only country in the region to have a Generation III+ reactor. Moscow and Cairo signed an agreement in 2015 for Russia to build a nuclear power plant in Egypt, with Russia extending a loan to Egypt to cover the cost of construction. The trial operation of the first nuclear reactor is expected to take place in 2022. Egypt, with a population of nearly 104 million and vast energy needs, wants to diversify its energy sources.
