The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has awarded a US$20.4 billion contract to build four nuclear power plants to a South Korean-led consortium, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation said on Sunday.
The UAE “has determined that the Korea Electric Power Corporation [KEPCO] team is best equipped to fulfill the government’s partnership requirements in this ambitious program,” ENEC chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak said in a statement.
The deal is expected to lead to additional contracts worth US$20 billion to operate and maintain the reactors over the next 60 years, South Korea’s knowledge and economy ministry said in a statement in Seoul.
However, an Emirati official said that “a contract covering the operation of the facilities has not yet been awarded.”
ENEC communications director Padraic Riley told a news conference there could be more contracts in connection with the construction of further reactors, but did not say if there would be a contract for the operation of the first four.
“If, in the future, the UAE moves forward with [building] a fleet of nuclear reactors ... there may be more contracts,” he said.
ENEC chief executive officer Mohamed al-Hammadi told the news conference his country “will definitely be building more than four [plants].”
ENEC, which was established last week by presidential decree and tasked with implementing the UAE’s nuclear energy program, said that the KEPCO-led consortium has been selected to “help operate” the power plants.
But it did not give further details, saying only that Sunday’s deal covers “construction, commissioning and fuel loads” for the four 1,400 megawatt reactors, the first of which is to begin producing electricity in 2017.
The consortium tasked with building the plants comprises Korean firms KEPCO, Samsung, Hyundai and Doosan Heavy Industries, along with US firm Westinghouse, Toshiba of Japan, and KEPCO subsidiaries, ENEC said.
It won the deal against competition from two rival bidding groups that included a consortium of French companies and another composed of the US firm General Electric and Japan’s Hitachi.
In Paris, the French consortium said it took note of the decision and that it remained ready to cooperate with the UAE in the future.
“The companies behind the French bid remained convinced of the quality of this offer and the advanced features of the EPR in terms of safety,” said the firms, referring to its European Pressurized Reactor model.
France’s top energy firms, EDF, GDF-Suez and Total along with engineering giants Areva, Vinci and Alstom had come together to present the bid for the US$20.4 billion contract.
Hammadi said that more than 2,000 workers would be employed at the plants and that a “minimum of 60 percent” of the workforce would eventually be made up of UAE citizens. But he did not say who would run the plants in the interim.
Thirty-nine Emiratis are currently on scholarships to universities in France, the US and the UK in studies related to work at nuclear power plants, Hammadi told the news conference.
Hee Yong-lee, who will lead KEPCO’s project in the UAE, said his country had much to offer regarding training for nuclear power plant employees.
“Korea has developed a very systematic training system, from the high school level to the university and vocational training. So we will share all the systems and contents” with the UAE, Lee said.
The four light water nuclear reactors should all be operational by 2020, and will boost the UAE’s goal of meeting 23 percent to 25 percent of its power demand with nuclear energy, Hammadi said.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS