UAE nuclear project enters critical phase
Anthony McAuley
July 13, 2015 04:27 PM
Although the first reactor is nearly 75 per cent complete and is on time and on budget,
industry executives said that the last phase would be the toughest.
“With a nuclear plant it gets a lot more complicated at the end when all the pieces
have to come together,” said an executive who was until recently one of Enec’s senior
division heads, and who did not want to be quoted by name.
“The first 80 to 90 per cent is pretty standard construction,” added the local head
of a Barakah subcontractor. “The last bit is the really hard part.”
“The UAE, certainly in order to meet the project timelines, is tied to the Korean
procedures and processes across the board,” said the former Enec division head.
“There had to be some changes to Barakah to account for the differences in seawater
temperature, the dusty environment, and the high ambient summer air temperature ...
and a different electrical system [but] the UAE plants are built on the same basic
design.”
Already, the Korean regulator has failed to pass Shin Kori 3 on several occasions
because of the faulty parts and it will be extra vigilant after the deaths of plant
workers. Kepco, meanwhile, has an agreement with Enec to run Shin Kori-3 by September
to demonstrate that it is fully operational, or it must pay penalties if it fails
to do so.
“The UAE is a blend of US and western European philosophies” in terms of the plant
safety and emergency response procedures, said the former Enec executive.
“Ultimately you are going to operate the plant with systems and processes that were
developed in Korea,” he said. “Is there an impact of taking a Korea-based design
and dropping it into the UAE environment? No doubt.”
He added: “Having a multinational, multicultural and multilingual workforce certainly
adds a layer of complexity to the UAE project. A great deal of effort has been placed
on trying to address potential issues in this area, and it will have to continue to be
an area of emphasis for the foreseeable future.”
Nuclear Power in the United Arab Emirates(Updated August 2015)
The UAE is embarking upon a nuclear power program in close consultation with the
International Atomic Energy Agency.
It accepted a $20 billion bid from a South Korean consortium to build four commercial
nuclear power reactors, total 5.6 GWe, by 2020 at Barakah.
Construction of the first unit started in July 2012, and the second in May 2013.
The first unit is more than 60% complete and is expected on line in 2017.
HOSTILE TAKEOVER
S08.28.151:13 AM ET
The Coming Yakuza War
Watanabe was affectionately known as “Goro-chan,” i.e. Mr. Gorilla, for his
simian appearance. While many yakuza in Japan are naturalized Koreans or children
of Japan’s former outcaste class, burakumin, and thus were subject to discrimination,
the Yamaken-gumi tends to have more outcaste class members while the Kodo-kai has
a larger Korean-Japanese makeup. That has helped create tension between the factions.