ABU DHABI // The third reactor vessel has been installed at the Barakah nuclear power plant in the Western Region.
The completion of the Unit 3 Reactor Vessel is a critical step towards finishing the country’s first nuclear power plant, which by 2020 is expected to provide up to a quarter of the UAE’s electricity.
The Unit 1 and Unit 2 reactor vessels were installed in 2014 and 2015, respectively. The vessels weigh more than 400 tonnes and are nearly 15 metres in height, and are built to contain the controlled nuclear reaction generating energy for the UAE grid, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) said on Wednesday.
“The phased approach to completing each unit with a substantial amount of time between each one means each unit’s development adopts the efficiencies learnt from the previous one,” said Mohammed Al Hammadi, Enec’s chief executive, as quoted by state news agency Wam.
The construction of the four total units is now more than 65 per cent complete, Enec said.
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