(ANSAmed) – BEIRUT, 06 APR – The United Arab Emirates
announced Tuesday that the first nuclear power plant built in an
Arab country will begin providing electricity on a national
scale.
“The Emirates took a historic step today,” tweeted Emirati Prime
Minister Muhammad ben Rashed Al Maktum.
“The first megawatt from the first Arab nuclear plant entered
the national electric grid,” he said, echoed by Emirati crown
prince and strongman Muhammad ben Zayed.
The UAE is the fourth-largest producer of oil in the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), but
has been working for years in the development of alternative
energy sources.
The nuclear plant in Baraka, built on the shore of the Gulf
facing the Iranian coast where the nuclear plant of Bushehr
stands, is made up of four reactors.
Currently only one reactor is operational, since August, but
when all four are operational the plant will be able to produce
one-fourth of the energy requirement in a country that,
especially during the summer months, consumes a high level of
electricity.
The Baraka plant was built by a consortium formed by the
national company of the Emirates and a private South Korean
company, for an estimated cost of about 20 billion euros.
(ANSAmed).