1. The first nuclear concrete was poured this week at two Rosatom-supplied WER-1200 newbuilds: EI-Dabaa-1, the first of four reactors at Egypt's first nuclear power plant, and Akkuyu-4, the last unit to start construction at Turkey's first nuclear plant. The milestones occurred on two consecutive days. Workers at the Nuclear Power Plants Authority's (NPPA's) El-Dabaa began pouring the concrete during a Jul. 20 ceremony attended by Egyptian Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker, NPPA Chairman Amged El-Wakeel and Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev, who commented that this "will be the largest project of the Russian-Egyptian cooperation since the Aswan High Dam." The next day Likhachev was present for a similar ceremony, this time with Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez, at the Akkuyu site on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. The two projects are the fourth and fifth large nuclear newbuilds to achieve this milestone this year, following three units in China. It's not clear why Akkuyu-4's construction launch came nine months after authorities granted a construction license in October 2021; the El-Dabaa milestone came only weeks after Egypt's nuclear regulator issued a construction license on Jun. 29.
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