Hosni Mubarak said that the reactor would be located in el-Dabaa, according to the presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad.
The government also expected the plant to start operating in 2019, said an electricity and energy ministry spokesman, Aktham Abu el-Ela.
“You know we have a crisis when it comes to conventional fuels. This will be a stable source of energy,” he said.
Ela said the Dabaa plant would be followed by three other reactors, tentatively scheduled to start production in 2025.
The Egyptian leader first announced plans to launch a number of nuclear power plants in 2007.
Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Yukiya Amano, on his visit to Cairo in June, said the agency was ready to assist Egypt. The country signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty in 1981.