Gov’t to open talks with Rosatom on adding new El Dabaa reactors

The government is looking into adding at least two reactors to El Dabaa nuclear power plant, with expansion potentially reaching four additional units, Electricity Minister Mahmoud Esmat said in a televised call (watch, runtime: 2:59). The government will discuss the proposed expansion with Russian state-owned Rosatom over the first two proposed units, but no final investment decision, cost, or timeline have been announced.

“We are ready to expand our cooperation and offer Egypt some of the most reliable and safe solutions in global nuclear energy, which will help strengthen the country’s role as a regional center for peaceful nuclear energy,” Rosatom tells EnterpriseAM, adding, “It’s important to emphasize that we are not simply building a nuclear power plant; we are also facilitating the development of a modern national nuclear industry in our partner country.”

What that could mean: The four VVER-1200 reactors now being built will each provide 1.2 GW, giving the plant a combined capacity of 4.8 GW. Adding two reactors of the same size could bring capacity to 7.2 GW, while a four-reactor expansion would take it to 9.6 GW — though the technology and capacity of any additional units have not been confirmed.

The existing project: Rosatom is building four units under a project estimated to cost USD 28.75 bn, with Russia providing a reported USD 25 bn loan covering 85% of the cost and Egypt financing the remainder. The first unit is expected to come online by the end of 2028, while the whole facility is expected to be completed by 2030.

The fuel math: Esmat said the initial 4.8 GW plant could save around 8 bcm of natural gas, reducing the fuel Egypt burns to generate electricity — equivalent to some 19% of Egypt’s 2025 gas output (42 bcm).

Caveats?

The expansion comes under a cloud: Days after the Electricity Minister’s announcement, Politico reported allegations of construction defects, safety culture breaches, and project-management failures at El Dabaa, citing documents supplied by an intelligence official. These include what Politico described as a confidential June letter, purportedly sent by Egypt’s Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA) to Rosatom, and four internal Rosatom documents. We did not independently review or verify the documents.

Rosatom and the NPPA pushed back on the report. Rosatom told Politico that it upholds the highest levels of nuclear safety and has done so throughout the construction of El Dabaa — citing its quality-management system and oversight involving Egyptian and Russian authorities, as well as engagement with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Meanwhile, the NPPA said in a statement that Politico had presented an “inaccurate and unbalanced” picture by taking technical observations out of their engineering and regulatory context and drawing them into a broader narrative — adding that “no construction stage is approved or accepted until the required corrective measures have been completed and the relevant hydraulic and structural tests have been successfully conducted.”

Where construction stands: The reactor pressure vessel — the steel structure that contains the nuclear core — was installed at Unit 2 in July, following the same milestone at Unit 1 in November 2025.