Egypt's first nuclear unit has core catcher installed

Officials from Egypt's Nuclear Power Plants Authority and Russia's Rosatom commemorated the installation of the core catcher in the first unit at the El Dabaa nuclear power plant. The core catcher, with a 6.1-metre diameter, is a crucial part of the passive safety system for the VVER-1200 reactor being built. Its main function is to securely retain fragments of the molten core during an emergency, thereby preventing their discharge beyond the reactor building containment. This component, the first of its large scale to be installed at the four-unit construction site located approximately 320 kilometers north-west of Cairo, was manufactured in Russia in a period of 14 months, then transported to Egypt in March. NPPA Chairman Amged El-Wakeel officiated the beginning of the core catcher's installation. The El Dabaa site had seen its first concrete pour in July 2022, with the remaining units following suit. The plant will comprise four VVER-1200 units, akin to the operational ones at the Leningrad and Novovoronezh nuclear power plants in Russia, and the Ostrovets nuclear power plant in Belarus. The contract, effective from December 2017, mandates Rosatom not only to build the plant but also to supply nuclear fuel throughout its lifecycle, train personnel, handle plant maintenance for the first 10 years of its operation, build a special storage facility, and provide containers for storing used nuclear fuel.