License Issued for Barakah Nuclear Unit 2
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The Arab world’s first nuclear power plant has received an operating license for its second unit, and the facility’s timeline still calls for commercial start-up of the first unit later this year.
The Barakah nuclear power station, in the Al Dhafrah region of Abu Dhabi, will include four units with 5,600 MW of generating capacity when complete. It is being built by Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) and will feature four APR-1400 pressurized water reactors. The plant is expected to supply about one-quarter of the peak power demand for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to government officials.
A Long Road to Completion
The UAE’s nuclear regulator on March 9 announced the operational license for Unit 2. Unit 1 was connected to the UAE’s national power grid in August of last year, and in December 2020 reached 100% of reactor power capacity during testing. Hamad Al-Kaabi, deputy chairman of Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) and the UAE’s representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in a media briefing Tuesday said construction of Unit 3 is 94% complete, with Unit 4 at 87% complete (Figure 1).…