UAE: Officials say Barakah nuclear power plant can withstand Turkey-Syria earthquake – News

Once fully operational, the plant’s four APR1400-design nuclear reactors will supply up to 25 percent of the country’s electricity needs

The Barakah plant is designed to withstand earthquakes, a senior official of the UAE’s Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) told an event in Abu Dhabi.

Last week, a deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake left Turkey and Syria in ruins. More than ten years ago, a major earthquake triggered a powerful tsunami that destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, triggering a catastrophe.

FANR Director General Christer Viktorsson dismissed such concerns when asked about the safety of the Barakah nuclear power plant and whether it could withstand a similarly disastrous Turkey-Syria earthquake.

“Baraka can withstand it. Yes, it can,” he told Khaleej Times on the sidelines of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting hosted by FANR in Abu Dhabi.

Following the Fukushima accident in March 2011, the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant underwent several design improvements before construction began to improve its safety factor.

“We’ve assessed Baraka from a Fukushima perspective. Before we gave Unit 1 the license to work in 2012, we did a full assessment of it, [and] Aspects to consider such as seismic activity, flooding, [and a] tsunami. All these external hazards that could affect the plant, we have assessed them, they have made safety improvements and we have approved those,” Viktorsson said.

The Barakah plant is located in Al Dhafra, approximately 53 kilometers west-southwest of Ruwais city. Once fully operational, the plant’s four APR1400 design nuclear reactors will meet up to 25 percent of the UAE’s electricity needs.

While units 1 and 2 are already in commercial operation, unit 3 has been connected to the national grid and is expected to start commercial operation in the coming months. FANR is currently evaluating the application for an operating license for Unit 4. The license is expected to be issued by the end of the year, provided all regulatory specifications are met.

“We have started the review of the license application for Unit 4. So hopefully if all goes well, we hope to finish the review by the end of the year,” Viktorsson noted.

Once the operating license is obtained, the next steps are fuel loading, reactor start-up, grid connection, power ramp-up testing and commercial operation. The entire process from issuing an operating license to commencing commercial operations takes a year or more.

The four-day international conference on “Effective Nuclear and Radiation Regulatory Systems” attracted more than 580 participants from 95 Member States and four international organizations. Regulatory experience and agility in responding to emerging challenges in a changing environment, as well as innovative and technological approaches to regulation, were at the heart of the conference discussions.

Lydie Evrard, Deputy Director General and Director of the Nuclear Safety and Security Department at the IAEA, said: “Sharing regulatory experience and expertise together, disseminating knowledge, and sharing best practices, lessons learned and novel solutions will help regulators and international Society contributes to global efforts to strengthen nuclear safety and security.”

This is the first time the conference has been held in Abu Dhabi. The first conference was held in Moscow in 2006, followed by Cape Town (2009), Ottawa (2013), Vienna (2016) and The Hague (2019).

Ambassador Hamad Al Kaabi, the UAE’s permanent representative to the IAEA, said that since the launch of the UAE’s nuclear energy program in 2008, the IAEA’s support had played a “significant role” in developing regulations, policies and standards, positioning the UAE as a “new example of a nuclear state”.

“Given the likely impact on the nuclear industry of issues such as cybersecurity, the introduction of artificial intelligence, small modular reactors, and nuclear fusion, these challenges require us to prepare and foresee the future to ensure that our regulatory infrastructure is both efficient and effective and Capable of responding to these trends. The development of a strong nuclear regulatory infrastructure in the UAE is the result of our long-term and strong cooperation with our national and international partners, in particular our close cooperation with the IAEA,” added Al Kaabi.