The United Arab Emirates starts up its fourth nuclear reactor
The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) has announced that the fourth unit of the Barakah nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates has entered commercial operation, marking its full handover.
With this start-up, the large nuclear power plant in the Emirates completes its operations, becoming the largest nuclear power plant in the entire Middle East.
Speaking at the WNA Symposium in London today (5 September), Mohamed Al Hammadi, CEO and director general of ENEC, said: “Today we have four [commercially] operational units. I'm very happy to say that. I'm very proud to say that."
The Barakah plant is generating 40 terawatt hours of electricity per year, providing up to a quarter of the UAE's electricity. The plant comprises four Korean-designed APR1400 reactors with a total installed capacity of 5.6 GW.
South Korea was awarded a $20 billion (26.67 billion won) contract to supply the United Arab Emirates' first nuclear power plant in December 2009, with the groundbreaking taking place in March 2011. first unit entered commercial operation in April 2021, followed by unit 2 in March 2022 and unit 3 in February 2023. This procurement was a great technological success for the South Korean industry, which is proving to be one of the more competitive globally.
Barakah's Unit 4 first reached criticality in March, but has only now been connected to the grid.
Now in full commercial operation, the four-unit Barakah plant will avoid an estimated 24.2 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year and help achieve 24% of the UAE's decarbonisation commitment for 2030.
Barakah is also delivering far-reaching economic benefits and playing a key role in helping companies decarbonise.
ENEC said 85% of clean energy certificates operated by Emirates Water and Electricity Company are powered by Barakah; these are used by companies such as ADNOC, EGA and Emirates Steel Arkan to produce “greener products” which can be sold at a premium. So nuclear, paradoxically, helps sell the oil and gas of the national company ADNOC.
The construction of the nuclear power plant also brought in $6.7 billion (Dh22.5 billion) in local procurement.
Al Hammadi added: “Over the past five years the UAE has added more clean electricity per capita than any other nation, and 75% of this comes from Barakah.”
The announcement comes amid growing global recognition of the central role of nuclear energy in decarbonisation and achieving net zero.
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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/gli-emirati-arabi-uniti-avviano-il-loro-quarto-reattore-nucleare/ on Fri, 06 Sep 2024 12:06:53 +0000.