Egypt agreed with Russia to sign the final contract for the nuclear power plant Al Dabaa by the end of 2016, Minister of Electricity, Mohamed Shaker, stated. He added that Moscow will grant Cairo a $25b loan to finance equipment for construction and operation of the plant and it is to provide the first tranche already after signing the contracts, reported Daily News Egypt.

Meanwhile, Head of the Energy Committee at the Egyptian parliament, Talaat El Swedy, stated that Al Dabaa nuclear plant agreement has not been presented to the Egyptian parliament yet. However, he stressed that the parliament will not decline any national project agreement such as Al Dabaa nuclear power plant agreement and there is no operational and financial terms left to be discussed, reported Al Borsa.

The first nuclear reactor is scheduled to start operating nine years after signing the contracts. The second reactor will follow six months later and the third will begin functioning after additional six month, while the fourth is planned to come online after another year since the completion of the third. The total capacity of the plant is to 4,800MW.

In addition, Egypt and its Russian partner agreed that meanwhile they will launch a training program for 1,711 people, who will work at the plant, already in April 2017.