ABU DHABI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates is considering building a second nuclear power plant to meet growing electricity demand in the oil-rich Gulf state, a government official told Reuters.
The country of about 10 million people has become a proponent of nuclear power, a low-carbon energy source, as it seeks to diversify its economy and attract foreign investment. The first factory became commercially operational in 2021.
Any contract for a new nuclear power plant would be worth tens of billions of dollars and could attract tenders from China, Russia and the United States, among others.
With the final reactor of the UAE’s only nuclear power plant set to become commercially operational this year, Hamad Alkaabi said the government was evaluating whether to build a second plant.
“The government is looking at this option. No final decision has been made yet on the tender process, but I can tell you that the government is actively exploring this option,” he said.
The government expects electricity consumption to increase substantially over the next decade, due to population growth and a growing industrial sector.
The government has yet to budget for a second power plant or decide on its size or location, but Alkaabi said it was possible a tender could be issued this year.
Sources told Reuters in April that the UAE was planning a second nuclear power plant and that it could invite bids to build a four-reactor plant within a few months.
Any new power plant would likely consist of two or four reactors, said Alkaabi, the UAE ambassador to Austria and permanent representative to the U.N. nuclear agency.
The size of a new power plant would depend on its construction and technology, he said, adding that South Korea, which built the existing plant, would not be treated as a preferred bidder in any tender.
“It is a policy decision to give opportunities to all potential bidders,” he said in an interview in Abu Dhabi.
Alkaabi is also vice chairman of the board of directors of the UAE’s nuclear regulator, known as FANR.
The UAE awarded Korea Electric Power (NYSE:) Corporation (KEPCO) a $20 billion contract in 2009 to design, build and operate four reactors in Abu Dhabi, near the border with Saudi Arabia.
KEPCO operates the plant in a joint venture with the plant’s state owner, Emirates Nuclear Energy Company.
Each of the Barakah plant’s reactors has a capacity of 1,400 megawatts and a total combined capacity of 5,600 megawatts.
Alkaabi said the UAE has had discussions with major nuclear power technology developers but did not name them.
The UAE is a close security partner of the United States and signed a nuclear energy cooperation agreement with Washington in 2009.
It says its nuclear program is peaceful and for energy purposes only to reduce its dependence on oil, and buys the fuel it needs for its reactors from the international market to avoid uranium enrichment. Enriched uranium, the fuel for nuclear power plants, can be used to make nuclear bombs.
Removing enrichment from nuclear programs reduces the potential for weapons development.
The UAE lies across the Gulf from Iran, which accuses the US of seeking to develop weapons with its nuclear program, while Tehran says it needs nuclear power. The UAE also borders Saudi Arabia, which is in talks with the United States over ambitions to develop its own civilian nuclear energy industry.
