As of 2023, the UAE is about to finish building four nuclear power units at the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant. The construction of the plant commenced in July 2012. Three units are connected to the UAE’s national grid.
The Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant is located in Al Dhafra region of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, approximately 53 km west-southwest of the city of Ruwais. When all four units of the plant start operating commercially, the plant will produce up to 25 per cent of the country's electricity requirements.
The journey of the individual units of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant is as follows:
Unit 1
In August 2020, Nawah Energy Company (Nawah), in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Transmission and Despatch Company (TRANSCO), a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA), safely and successfully connected Unit 1 of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant to the UAE’s grid, and started despatching its first megawatts of clean electricity to the country. During the process, the generator in Unit 1 was integrated and synchronised with the requirements of the UAE’s national electricity transmission grid.
Read more.Unit 2
After the safe and successful start of Unit 2 on 27 August 2021, the Barakah Plant became the first multi-unit operating nuclear plant in the UAE and the Arab region.. With Unit 2 grid connection successfully completed, the Unit is in preparation to adding a further 1,400MW of clean electricity capacity to the UAE’s grid.
Read more.Unit 3
Nawah Energy Company (Nawah) successfully started Unit 3 of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in September 2022. In October 2022, the unit was safely and successfully connected to the UAE’s transmission grid.
Unit 3 started on to add another 1,400 megawatts of zero-carbon emission electricity capacity to the national grid, a major step forward in advancing UAE energy security and energy sustainability to tackle climate change.
Read more.Unit 4
Unit 4, the fourth and final unit at the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, will raise the Barakah Plant’s total clean electricity generation capacity to 5.6GW, equivalent to 25 per cent of the UAE’s electricity needs, delivering more than 40TWh of clean electricity per year.
Read more.In October 2009, the late H. H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the then President of the UAE approved Federal Law by Decree No. 6 of 2009 Concerning the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy (PDF, 500 KB). The law established Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation as the UAE's nuclear regulatory body responsible for overseeing the peaceful nuclear energy sector in the country and the enforcer of nuclear safety and radiological protection standards. FANR will also be responsible for the licensing of operators in the nuclear sector and the monitoring of radiological materials.
In December 2009, the late Sheikh Khalifa established by a decree, Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) for implementing the UAE’s nuclear energy programme. ENEC specialises in the deployment, ownership and operation of nuclear power plants within the UAE.
Nawah Energy Company (Nawah) is a subsidiary of Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation’s (ENEC), responsible for operation of the nuclear power plant located in the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi emirate.
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