The plant is being jointly developed by Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).
The ground-breaking ceremony for the $22.4 billion project, which will include 4 units of 1,400MW, was held in March 2011.
The NPP is equipped with APR1400 nuclear reactor technology, which was developed by the Korean nuclear industry under the leadership of KEPCO. The reactor design is based on the System 80+, which is certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the US.
Today, 98 % of UAE’s energy comes from gas-fired stations. When completed, the 4 reactors of Barakah will have a total capacity of 5,600 megawatts – enough to meet 25 % of the UAE’s energy needs and avoid the release of up to 21 million tonnes of carbon emissions that would otherwise be produced by burning fossil fuels for electricity generation.
In the UAE alone, the emissions that will be prevented by the operation of the Barakah Plant are equivalent to the removal of 3.2 million cars from the nation’s road annually.
On March 2020, ENEC announced the completion of the fuel assemblies loading into the Unit 1 reactor.
On August 1 2020 the UAE has commissioned Unit 1 of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in Abu Dhabi, marking the start of the 1st-ever nuclear power plant in the Arab world.
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Barakah nuclear power plant
Barakah NPP in the Dhafra Region of Abu Dhabi is the 1st nuclear power project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as in the entire Arab world.
