Installation of melt trap underway at El Dabaa 2

Specialists from Rosatom’s Engineering Division have begun installation of the body of the core melt localisation device (melt trap) at unit 2 of the El Dabaa NPP under construction in Egypt. The ceremony marking the start of the installation was attended by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Egypt’s Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA), Amged El-Wakil; NPPA Deputy Board Chairman Mohamed Ramadan; Rosatom First Deputy General Director for Atomic Energy and President of JSC ASE Andrey Petrov; First Vice President for Construction at JSC ASE Alexey Zhukov; Vice President of JSC ACE and Director of project for the construction of a El Dabaa Alexey Kononenko; as well as design teams from Rosatom’s Engineering Division and NPPA.

El Dabaa NPP will comprise four units with generation III+ VVER-1200 pressurised water reactors. The NPP is being constructed in accordance with contracts that entered into force in 2017. The $30bn project is mainly financed through a $25bn Russian loan. Rosatom will supply nuclear fuel throughout the lifecycle of the plant, arrange for the training of the Egyptian personnel, and assist in the operation and maintenance of the plant for the first 10 years. The reference plant for El Dabaa is the Leningrad-II NPP. Construction of all four units is planned for completion by 2028-2029 and Egypt expects that the NPP will reach full capacity by 2030. The melt trap is one of the most important elements of the passive safety system for NPPs with generation III +VVER-1200 reactors. The melt trap for unit 1 was installed in October.

“Our project continues to develop at a rapid pace,” said Andrey Petrov. “The installation of the melt trap at unit 2 is one of the key construction events planned for 2024, and has been completed ahead of schedule in November 2023. It is worth noting that less than two months ago - in October – we installed the melt trad at unit 1 – this indicates almost parallel construction of the first and second units. By the end of this year, we plan to pour first concrete for the foundation slab of unit 4, thus marking the end of the preparatory period and the transition to the main stage of construction of the four-unit NPP. All this is the result of the coordinated work of a single team involving the customer and the general contractor.”