Kirill Komarov, Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation's deputy general director, said the Dabaa nuclear power plant (NPP) would be the “safest in the world”, while Anatoly Kovtunov, chief of the Dabaa project at Rosatom, stressed the NPP could withstand all natural disasters.

Komarov and Kovtunov’s statements came during the second Nuclear Industry Suppliers Forum held by Rosatom in cooperation with Egypt's Nuclear Power Plants Authority in Cairo on 8-9 October.

Engineer Mohamed Ramadan, Egyptian chief of the Dabaa NPP project at the authority, said at the forum that the contracts of the Dabaa project were signed, and the project was at the primary implementation phase concerned with the plant design, site preparation and licensing.

Ramadan said the authority was working on developing the infrastructure of the project, and that work was already undergoing in the plant, establishing telecommunications and delivering facilities needed for the project.

He clarified that the NPP had received the site approval permit on 10 March from the Egyptian Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority.

The permit is an acknowledgment that the site and its characteristics comply with Egyptian and International Atomic Energy Agency requirements that ensure the safety and reliability of the operation of nuclear facilities.

Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker said in his opening statement at the forum that the Dabaa NPP was “the biggest project in Egypt’s history,” adding that the Egyptian peaceful nuclear programme would lead to the introduction of new industries and raise the quality of Egyptian industries.

On 19 November 2015, Egypt and Russia signed an agreement to build Egypt’s first nuclear power plant in Dabaa, Matrouh governorate, in the north of Egypt. The plant consists of 4 VVER-1,200 nuclear reactors making the total capacity of the power plant 4,800 MW.

The NPP is expected to begin producing power in 2026.