Construction Week Middle East – August 03, 2019

RESEARCH

12 CONSTRUCTION WEEK 3 - 30 AUGUST, 2019 WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM

Neha Bhatia rounds up the key measures taken to ensure

Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant’s safety and compliance,

as revealed by Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation’s

Annual Report 2018

D

etails have been revealed of

the licensing and assessment

process carried out by the

UAE’s Federal Authority for Nuclear

Regulation (FANR) for Barakah Nuclear

Energy Plant (Barakah NEP) in Abu

Dhabi as of December 2018, alongside

developer Emirates Nuclear Energy

Corporation (Enec) and operator

Nawah Energy Company.

FANR revealed that by the end of

2018, it had reviewed and assessed

approximately 95% of the licence

application from Nawah to operate

reactor Unit 1 of Barakah.

Inspections to evaluate the

operational readiness of Unit 1 are

ongoing and a licence for operation will

be issued when FANR has determined

that all regulatory requirements are

met, according to the annual report,

issued in July 2019. FANR continued

its oversight of the reactor operator

and senior reactor operator training

and certification programmes for the

project during the year.

The authority certified the first

batch of nuclear reactor operators at

Nawah in July 2019, comprising 15

UAE national senior reactor operators

(SROs) and reactor operators (ROs).

Its report continues: “Nawah

submitted the Physical Protection Plan

for Operation of Unit 1 and 2 of the

Barakah Nuclear Power Plant, Revision

3 and 4, for FANR to review and

approve last year, in conjunction with

the licence for operation.”

Additionally, Nawah provided the

schedule for implementation of the

Cyber Security Programme Manual.

FANR completed its review for the

Nawah Energy Company’s physical

protection arrangements for nuclear