UAE’s Barakah nuclear power plant ‘role model for the world’
Barakah is close to start-up and confidence in first reactor is high
The UAE’s new nuclear power station is “a role model for the world”, says one of the most senior figures involved in the project.
With the first reactor close to becoming fully operational, Mohammed Al Hammadi, the chief executive officer of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, believes the power plant shows the country has become a showcase for the industry. The first reactor is now in the final stages of evaluation and is expected to begin generating electricity for the national grid in the New Year.
But Mr Al Hammadi would not be drawn on a precise date.
Latest estimates show that reactor one is now 96 per cent complete, with the uranium fuel already on site for loading and activation.
But Mr Hammadi said the reactor would not be cleared to begin generating power until the completion of a further series of rigorous tests he described as: “Ten times dotting the ‘i’s and crossing the ‘t’s.”
The Barakah plant, in the Western Region, consists of four nuclear reactors, with the final one scheduled to come on stream in 2020. By then it is expected to supply about a quarter of the UAE’s electricity.
The plant is the world’s largest nuclear power construction site, where one in five of its workers are women, the highest ratio of any nuclear power company in the world.
Mr Hammadi said that the addition of nuclear power to the UAE’s existing sources will create “a beautiful basket of energy” that will include gas, oil and solar power.
The four reactors can run continuously for up to 18 months, with enough fuel on site for three years without fresh supplies.
“We have become the showcase of how to develop a civil nuclear power plant from scratch,” said Mohamed Al Hammadi.
The UAE, he said, has become “a role model” for the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
As chief executive of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, Mr Al Hammadi is poised to lead the country and its economy into a new world.
He was speaking yesterday as the Barakah power station entered the final, and perhaps most crucial, stage of its construction.
The first of four nuclear reactors is now 96 per cent complete. All major testing is finished and the enriched uranium that will fuel the reactor is stored and ready to be loaded.
That final 4 per cent is not something that will be rushed.
“The key message here is that we want this power plant to meet all the high standards of nuclear safety and quality,” Mr Hammadi said.
“We have to make sure all the equipment is 100 per cent ready to operate. You dot every ‘i’ 10 times and cross every ‘t’ 10 times.
He expects the first electricity to enter the UAE power grid next year. When exactly?
“Once we meet all the requirements then we will operate the power plant.”
A host of authorities have to be satisfied, including environmental agencies and the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation, which independently assesses the plant’s readiness.
Construction of the plant began in 2012 and will be not be completed until 2020. It is the world’s largest nuclear construction site. Barakah operates on a timescale almost unheard of – until 2085, when the four reactors will reach the end of their operational life.
For the next 60 years, Mr Hammadi predicted, the UAE will benefit “from a beautiful basket of energy” that will include gas, oil and renewables, such as solar power.
But nuclear power will be the backbone. The reactors can run 24 hours a day, seven days a week for up to 18 months, producing about 25 per cent of the country’s electricity needs.
Barakah will have enough uranium fuel on site to keep it going for three years.
In doing so, it creates a safety net of energy security, as the economy continues to grow at double-digit rates.
“This basket of energies will make this nation successful for decades to come,” Mr Hammadi said. “Nuclear will play a major role in that equation. The good thing about nuclear from a security point of view is that it is a clean, safe and reliable source of energy.”
All four reactors will not be fully on stream until about 2020, but progress continues on the remaining three, with the announcement yesterday that unit two has completed an important evaluation of its cooling system.
International expertise has also been crucial, with the reactors designed in Korea and the Korea Electric Power Corporation taking an 18 per cent stake in the Nawah Energy Company, the subsidiary that will operate the plant.
Also vital has been the support of the International Atomic Energy Authority, which promotes peaceful atomic power.
All the uranium fuel for the Barakah plant is imported and will be sent overseas for reprocessing once it is spent.
The plant has been constructed in the Al Dhafra Region, about 70 kilometres from Ruwais and, ironically, close to many of the country’s oil fields.
The decision to embrace nuclear power marks another stage in the UAE’s transition from an oil-based economy and has also allowed a generation of young Emiratis to discover science and technology based skills.
About 60 per cent of the workers at Barakah are nationals, and the ratio of women, at 20 per cent, is the highest in any nuclear plant in the world.
“I am personally very proud of that,” Mr Hammadi said. Bringing nuclear power to the UAE, he said: “Is a great achievement we can all be proud of.”