Hunt on for N-plant sites

Abu Dhabi: Energy experts have started the process of pinpointing potential sites for the country's first nuclear power stations.

Current nuclear technologies require easy access to large bodies of water for production processes, cooling and venting mechanisms, and easy shipping access for both nuclear fuel and spent nuclear rods.

Khalid Malallah Al Awadi, a UAE energy expert, told Gulf News one potential site is along the sparsely-populated coastline between Abu Dhabi and Ruwais. "Two nuclear power plants could be built here, 50km apart," he said. "As well, there's room to put one up in Fujairah."

The pressure is on to quickly identify potential sites for the nuclear reactors. As nuclear plants typically take a minimum of seven years to become fully operational through conception, planning, building, training, testing and start-up phases, the clock is ticking. By 2020, officials expect UAE demand to exceed 40,800 megawatts, based on an annual growth rate of 9 per cent beginning in 2007.

At present, almost 85 per cent of the country's 18,000 megawatts (MW) power capacity is generated from gas-based plants. The remaining capacity is generated from oil-fired plants. Nearly all of the power generated in Dubai and Abu Dhabi comes from gas-fired plants.

"Over the next 12 years, toughly 50 per cent of the power plants in the country will be gas fired, while 30 per cent of the electricity generation will be by nuclear power plants," explained Al Awadi.

And he expects at least three nuclear power plants, each with a minimum capacity of 1,500 megawatts, will be up and running by then. In launching the UAE's white paper on the nation's nuclear programme, Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister, said: "We recognise that this growth will require continued access to affordable energy, and for this reason the UAE has begun to evaluate the potential contribution of peaceful nuclear energy to its future domestic energy mix."

Franchise contracts

While it costs at least $7 billion at current prices to build each 1,500 megawatt reactor, the high cost is offset by inexpensively-produced power, at approximately one-quarter the cost of gas-produced power. Al Awadi is recommending that the UAE government enter into power-purchasing contracts with nuclear power-generating companies based in the US, France, Russia and Japan.

"These companies can have their branch in the UAE on a franchise basis," Al Awadi explained. "This will help speed up the process of integrating nuclear energy into the UAE's energy system.

Issuing operating licences on a franchise basis would also allow the UAE to avoid potential issues over the long-term management of high-level nuclear waste - spent nuclear rods, which have radioactive half-lives of thousands of years - and of low-level radioactive waste.