Egypt plans to discuss adding two reactors to its El-Dabaa nuclear power plant with Russia’s Rosatom, Electricity and Renewable Energy Minister Mahmoud Esmat said, potentially expanding the country’s first commercial nuclear power plant by 50 per cent to about 7.2GW.
Esmat said the plan followed presidential directives and that the Mediterranean site could accommodate additional units. No construction contract, financing package or implementation timetable has been announced for the proposed fifth and sixth reactors.
El-Dabaa is being developed with four Generation III+ VVER-1200 pressurised-water reactors, each with 1.2GW of gross electrical capacity, giving the existing project a combined 4.8GW. If the additional reactors use the same design, the six-unit complex would have a gross capacity of about 7.2GW.
Russia is providing a $25bn state loan covering 85 percent of the cost of the existing four-unit project, with Egypt financing the remaining 15 per cent. Cairo has not disclosed whether a similar financing structure would apply to the proposed expansion.
Construction of all four existing units is under way, with the plant expected to reach full capacity around 2030. The reactor pressure vessel for Unit 1 was installed in November 2025, followed by the Unit 2 vessel in July 2026.
The existing programme also includes progressively higher Egyptian participation, with local-content requirements rising from 20 per cent for Unit 1 to 35 per cent for Unit 4. Any extension of that localisation model would increase the potential work available to Egyptian construction, engineering and equipment suppliers.
The proposal comes as Egypt seeks to meet rising electricity demand while reducing the power sector’s dependence on natural gas. Additional nuclear capacity could reduce gas consumption in electricity generation, potentially releasing more fuel for industrial use or export as Cairo simultaneously expands solar, wind and electricity-storage capacity.
Whether the two-reactor expansion proceeds will depend on negotiations over financing, reactor specifications, construction schedules and local-content requirements, none of which has yet been disclosed.
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