25 September 2014

Construction Start at UAE’s Barakah‑3 Reactor

Construction Start at UAE’s Barakah-3 Reactor

25 September 2014

The first safety concrete has been poured at Barakah unit-3 in United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 24 September 2014, according to the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC). Construction of the reactor containment building is scheduled to be completed over the next three years with the aim of commercial operations by 2019. Barakah unit-1 is scheduled to begin operations in 2017, while unit- 2 is scheduled for 2018. Four APR1400 reactors are planned at Barakah supplied by the Korea Electric Power Company (KEPCO).

Safety concrete is the placement of the safety related concrete that forms part of the lower basement structure of the reactor containment building. The quality and reliability of such concrete structures are essentially passive under normal operating conditions, but play a key role in mitigating the impact of extreme/abnormal operating and environmental events.

Little information is available on progress at the Barakah building site. While steps have been taken to release information on the progress of construction through twice yearly reports from an International Advisory Board, it is noted that the level of detail “falls far short of what is customarily available to the public in new-build programs in other countries, particularly in the West.”