In 2012, a story published in the news section of
Nature Journal website, stated that:"''... [radioactive] material was taken from a laboratory at the El Dabaa nuclear power plant on the country's Mediterranean coast.''" But as of 2020, the El Dabaa nuclear power plant was only bare land. As of 2017, only the first stage of preliminary engineering survey was conducted and the hydrographic and hydrological survey work was carried on. Construction on the plant was expected to start in 2020; it eventually started in mid-2022. On 7 November 2013 Egyptian President
Adly Mansour announced that the nuclear power program would be restarted. On 14 November 2013, a spokesman for the
electricity ministry, Aktham Abouelela, stated that the
tender to build the reactor will begin in January 2014, though it has been delayed until the end of 2014. The first target year for operation was 2019; the plant would be used for 60 years and function as a
light water reactor with a capacity of 950 to 1,650
megawatts. In November 2017, preliminary contracts for the construction of four VVER-1200 units were signed in the presence of Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Russian President
Vladimir Putin. The first concrete was poured on 1 July 2022. The four units are being built almost concurrently and the new target date to be fully operational is 2030. == Climate ==