Barakah nuclear plant closer to operation
The Barakah nuclear energy plant is a step closer to being switched on.
Construction of the first reactor has been completed, and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation’s handover of operations at the plant to Nawah Energy Company is “almost complete”, said Christer Viktorsson, the UAE’s senior nuclear regulator.
More tests and adjustments need to be done before the Government will allow the plant to operate, said Mr Viktorsson, director general of the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation.
“I have to make sure that everything is tip-top before I give the operating licence,” he said. “They have 60 or 80 years to operate, which is the typical lifetime of a nuclear reactor. So why rush for two months or three months or a year?”
The UAE plans to have its four nuclear plants operating by 2021, Suhail Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy, said in September.
The reactors are estimated to cost US$25 billion (Dh91.83bn) and produce a combined 5,600 megawatts of power as a part of the country’s programme to diversify its energy and reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.
The first reactor is expected to start loading fuel next month, South Korea’s Energy Ministry said last month. South Korean President Moon Jae-in attended a ceremony to celebrate the plant’s completion that month.
Mr Viktorsson said the reactor could not load fuel until his agency issued an operating licence, without specifying when the regulator was likely to do so.
“Not in the next couple of weeks, that’s for sure,” he said.
Connecting units 3 and 4 to the grid will allow the next stage of testing and the completion of auxiliary buildings on the site, which is in Al Dhafra near Ruwais.
Once fully operational, the Barakah power plant is expected to produce a quarter of the UAE’s energy and save 21 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year.
Nawah Energy, a joint venture between Enec and Korea Electric, was established to operate the UAE’s four nuclear plants.
The UAE’s nuclear safety culture is improving day by day, Mr Viktorsson said.
“They realise that we cannot have a nuclear accident,” he said. “Even a small accident is too much.”