ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates’ regulator is in the final stages of issuing a license to the operator of the Barakah nuclear power plant now being built but cannot yet give a date for when it will be granted, a senior official said on Wednesday.
Operator Nawah Energy Company said in May that Barakah should start up between the end of 2019 and early 2020. It will be the UAE’s first nuclear plant and the world’s largest when complete, with four reactors and 5,600 megawatts (MW) capacity.
“We are not yet ready to issue the operating license, we are in the final stages,” Christer Viktorrson, director-general of the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR), told reporters, adding it was “very hard” to say when it would be issued.
Barakah, which will be operated by Nawah and owned by Emirates Nuclear Energy Company, is being built by Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).
Delays in training enough local staff have pushed back the startup of the first reactor several times.
Viktorrson said the UAE was working with government entities on a strategy to provide education and training in radiation protection to those involved in the project.
He also said concrete voids detected by the contractor in the construction of two units of the plant had been repaired and he said this issue “is not part of the delay.”
Asked about environmental concerns raised by Qatar to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Viktorrson said the nuclear regulator was conforming to the “highest international standards” of the IAEA for safety and security.
Qatar said in a letter to the IAEA that the Barakah plant posed a serious threat to regional stability and the environment. It called for a regional safety framework to ensure the safe use of nuclear energy in the Gulf.
UAE regulator in final stages of issuing licence for nuclear plant
UAE regulator in final stages of issuing licence for nuclear plant
- Barakah will be UAE’s first nuclear plant
- The plant conforms to the highest international standards of safety and security
Iran security chief meets Oman ruler after US talks
- The trip comes after Iran and the United States resumed dialogue in Oman on Friday
MUSCAT: Iran’s top security official met Oman’s ruler in Muscat on Tuesday, days after a new round of talks there between officials from Washington and Tehran.
Ali Larijani, who heads the Supreme National Security Council, and Sultan Haitham bin Tariq “discussed the latest developments in the Iranian-American negotiations,” the official Oman News Agency said.
Larijani was also due to meet Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, who mediated Friday’s indirect talks between US and Iranian officials.
Larijani and Sultan Haitham also explored “ways to reach a balanced and just agreement between the two sides, and emphasized the importance of returning to the table of dialogue and negotiation.”
Larijani will head to Qatar after Oman, according to Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei.
The trip comes after Iran and the United States resumed dialogue in Oman on Friday for the first time since the 12-day Iran-Israel war last June, which was briefly joined by the US military.
