The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) has completed the main concrete works and heavy equipment lifting for the four reactors under construction at Barakah in the Al Dhafra Region of Abu Dhabi.
Enec is owner/operator of the $19bn project to build four South Korean-designed APR-1400 reactors at Barakah. Construction of the Barakah plant by a South Korean consortium led by the Korean Electric Powr Company (Kepco) began in July 2012 and overall construction of the four units is now more than 90%. Construction of Barakah 1 was completed earlier this year. As of the end of September, unit 2 was more than 94% complete, unit 3 more than 86% and unit 4 more than 77% complete.
“These achievements highlight the significant progress being made at the Barakah plant and mark the beginning of the end of construction activities as the final units of the plant transition to the testing and commissioning phase,” said Enec CEO Mohamed Al Hammadi.
More than 2.3 milllion cubic metres of concrete was poured for the project, and approximately 250,000 tonnes of reinforcing steel was installed by construction crews, setting an international construction performance record. The last major structural concrete was poured at the Fuel Handling Area Roof of Barakah 4. Other recent milestones include completion of cold hydrostatic testing (CHT) and hot functional testing at Barakah 2, completion of Barakah 4 reactor containment building dome and reactor coolant loop pipe welding, and completion of all major construction work on Barakah 3’s turbine generator and reactor pressure vessel (RPV) internals.
Environmental monitoring released
The Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) on 14 November released its first annual report on radiological environmental monitoring in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), establishing the baseline level of radiation for the UAE. The report presents findings from 2015, when FANR's monitoring programme began. Work included radiological surveys of conditions before operation of a nuclear facility, documenting the baseline radiation and determining the source of any man-made radionuclides found in the environment. FANR's environmental laboratory analysed vegetation, surface soil and seawater samples as well as more than 500,000 individual gamma dose rates from a network of 13 monitoring stations across the UAE and some 600 gamma dose rate measurements taken using a portable high-pressure ion chamber.
Naturally occurring radionuclides found were below reference levels set in FANR's regulations. The only man-made radionuclide detected in the 2015 samples was caesium-137, found at low levels in the majority of soil samples. This was expected as caesium-137 is found in soils worldwide, primarily due to residual fallout from past atmospheric nuclear weapons testing.
"Establishing a baseline level of environmental radiation is essential prior to the operation of any nuclear facility, because it provides a reference point to which the results of future monitoring can be compared," said director general of FANR, Christer Viktorsson.
