El Dabaa / Russia Delivers Core Catcher For Unit 3 At Egypt Nuclear Station ( www.nucnet.org )

Russia has delivered the core catcher for Unit 3 of the El Dabaa nuclear power station under construction in Egypt, the main contractor, Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom said.

The core catcher – also known as a core melt localisation device or core trap – is designed to catch the molten core material, or corium, of a nuclear reactor in the event of a nuclear meltdown and to prevent it from escaping the containment.

The component is among the largest in a nuclear reactor system, weighing about 170 tonnes and with a height and diameter around six metres. Rosatom said the core catcher is the first large component to be delivered onsite in Egypt.

Rosatom said the ship carrying the core catcher left the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk at the end of June for the journey south to Egypt and arrived six days later.

El Dabaa, Egypt’s first nuclear station, will have four Russia-supplied Generation III+ VVER-1200 pressurised water reactors, with the first unit expected to be online in 2026.