Paris (Platts)--16Jul2012/553 am EDT/953 GMT

Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation has received an environmental permit to build two nuclear power units at Barakah in the western region of Abu Dhabi, ENEC said Sunday.

In a press release, ENEC said it had received a "no objection certificate" from the environmental regulator, the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, for construction of Barakah Nuclear Power Plant units 1 and 2.

The permit was based on an environmental impact assessment and a construction environmental management plan submitted by ENEC in 2010.

ENEC still awaits a construction license from the UAE Federal Authority of Nuclear Regulation, FANR. ENEC applied for the license on December 27, 2010, one year after it had signed a contract with Korea Electric Power Corp. for turnkey supply of four APR1400 power reactors.

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ENEC's plan is to deliver nuclear power to the UAE grid from 2017.

FANR deputy director general Christer Viktorsson said in an interview July 11 that the agency's staff was "in the final stages of evaluation" of the construction license and intended to "submit our proposal to the [FANR] board quite soon."

The board is composed of nine members, all UAE citizens, and is chaired by Ahmed Mubarak Al Mazrouei, who also is secretary general of the Executive Council, the emirate's executive body. It makes the final decisions and has sole authority to issue nuclear licenses.

In a timeline for the Braka project on the ENEC website, the pouring of safety-related concrete on unit 1 is scheduled for November 2012, four months later than was expected when the application was made in late December 2010.

FANR said a few days after the March 2011 nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan that it would take the time needed to incorporate Fukushima issues into the license review, and asked ENEC to make proposals.

Viktorsson said ENEC had responded quickly and had recommended improvements to the project in July. FANR reported to the UAE government on the improvements in December, he said.

The UAE regulators "used the stress test approach" adopted in the EU to review the safety of nuclear power plants in light of Fukushima, Viktorsson said.

He said that ENEC and the vendor consortium had "proposed design enhancements" similar to those put forward in other countries after Fukushima, such as additional cooling water and power supplies.

--Ann Maclachlan, ann_maclachlan@platts.com
--Edited by Alisdair Bowles, alisdair_bowles@platts.com

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