Nuclear power plant application filed to UAE regulator

Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), the company in charge of the UAE's plan to develop reactors, has filed a 9,000-page construction application to the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation.

The application, for the first two reactor units of the project, is the result of a year of planning and preparation demonstrating the safety case for the country's first power plants, to be situated in Braka, in the Al Gharbia region.

The plants will be built by the Korea Electric Power Corporation, which has modelled the designs for the two reactors on "Shin Kori" units three and four in Korea.

The application takes into consideration necessary design changes to the Shin Kori plant, including those impacted by the high air temperatures in the Western Region; the higher temperature of the Arabian Gulf water as compared to the sea water in Korea; the potential for sandstorms at Braka; and the change in electric grid frequencies from 60 hertz, which is used in Korea, to 50 hertz, which is used in the UAE, ENEC said.

"We believe this license application demonstrates that the technology for our proposed power plant is safe, that the plant can be built to the highest possible standards, and that the proposed site is appropriate," said Mohamed al Hammadi, the chief executive of ENEC.