Four-reactor nuclear station in UAE is first in Arab World
Unit 4 of the Barakah nuclear power station in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been successfully connected to the national grid and has started generating electricity for the first time, owner Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) announced.
Enec said the operation was completed on 23 March and has brought the four-unit Barakah nuclear station, the first in the Arab world, closer to its goal to meet 25% of the UAE’s electricity needs.
According to the company, grid connection means Barakah-4 is nearing the start of commercial operation, with the unit set to undergo a process of gradually raising power levels which will be accompanied by a series of testing.
Barakah-4 is the fourth South Korea-supplied APR1400 at the Barakah station, on the Persian Gulf coast west of the city of Abu Dhabi. Units 1, 2, and 3 are all commercially operational.
Once the testing is complete and commercial operations begin, Unit 4 will raise Barakah’s total electricity generation capacity to 5,600 MW, expected to deliver more than 40 TWh of electricity per year.
Barakah-4 was loaded with fuel in late December 2023 and was initially started up on 1 March 2024.
Enec said that each unit has been connected to the grid more efficiently than the preceding one, as institutional knowledge and experience are applied to each subsequent unit.
“Unit 3 was delivered four months faster than the Unit 2 schedule, and five months faster than the Unit 1 schedule, demonstrating the significant benefit of building multiple units within a phased timeline,” said a statement.
