Business Bureau, Gulf Today

Nawah Energy Company (Nawah), the subsidiary created by Joint Venture partners Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) to operate and maintain the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, has today signed a Long Term Maintenance Services Agreement (LTMSA) with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), supported by KEPCO Plant Service & Engineering (KPS).

Under the scope of the signed LTMSA contract, KHNP and KPS will provide maintenance services to support routine and outage maintenance activities of the four APR1400 units of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, under the leadership of Nawah and in strict accordance with the UAE’s nuclear energy regulator’s quality and safety standards.

KHNP is a subsidiary of KEPCO, ENEC JV partner and Prime Contractor for the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, the first nuclear energy plant in the Arab World, located in the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi Emirate.

The KHNP consortium, supported by KPS, was selected to become a maintenance services partner as a result of its demonstrated capacity to work under the leadership of Nawah to support safe and quality-driven maintenance work at the Barakah plant.

The KHNP consortium supported by KPS, will play a key role in providing maintenance services, including planning and execution, under the leadership of Nawah. KHNP and KPS will also provide highly-qualified manpower in the form of supervisory and management experts, as well as maintenance leadership, who will be deployed to support the safety and quality-led maintenance of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant.

Under Nawah’s Leadership, KHNP will conduct testing, diagnostics, inspections, maintenance and replacement services, amongst others for both the nuclear and non-nuclear components of the Barakah plant.

KHNP operates and maintains the Shin Kori 3 and 4 nuclear energy plants in South Korea. These APR1400 reactors are the reference plants for Barakah, and therefore KHNP will bring specific experience to Barakah in maintaining this type of nuclear energy reactor.

Nawah, as the future holder of the Operating License from the UAE’s independent regulator, the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR), will hold all regulatory responsibilities for operations and maintenance of the Barakah plant. Nawah is currently preparing to commence operations of the first Unit of Barakah between the end of 2019 and early 2020, pending regulatory approval.

Mark Reddemann, Chief Executive Officer of Nawah, said: “We are delighted to have secured a long-term maintenance services relationship with KHNP and KPS. Through this agreement, we have created a robust framework of maintenance services providers that combine the best-in-class maintenance expertise in thermal and nuclear plant infrastructure and expertise in the APR1400 technology. The approval of these maintenance agreements stands as a firm commitment to securing the best international partners to ensure safe and quality-led nuclear maintenance at Barakah.”

Jaehoon Chung, President and Chief Executive Officer of KHNP, said: “Now we have opened another chapter for a comprehensive collaboration system under which Team Korea and Team UAE will work together as a team. KHNP and KPS will assign its talented resources with outstanding technical expertise including high-level officials to the Barakah plant to support its safe and reliable operation. We will proactively support the UAE in its endeavors to secure its own capabilities to successfully operate the plant through localisation. I am confident that Team Korea, as the only party across the globe that has experience in operating APR-1400, can contribute to the safe and reliable operations of the Barakah plant by playing a crucial role in its maintenance project. Furthermore, I hope our engagement in the project can continue to be extended.”

The agreement with the KHNP consortium is followed by a Maintenance Service Agreement (MSA) with Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction (DHIC). These agreements are central components in Nawah’s maintenance strategy to bring prominent suppliers from the international nuclear energy industry to ensure global best practice standards for operational excellence are implemented at the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, while in parallel developing the UAE’s local nuclear manpower capabilities and supply chain.

Comprising of four APR1400 nuclear reactors, construction of Barakah Unit 1 began in 2012 and was completed in 2018. In parallel, construction of Units 2, 3 and 4 is progressing safely and steadily. The overall completion of the Barakah plant is now more than 93 per cent. All four units will deliver safe, clean, reliable and efficient nuclear energy to the UAE grid, and when fully operational, will prevent the release of more than 21 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year.

A subsidiary of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and partially owned by the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), Nawah has been mandated to safely operate and maintain Units 1 to 4 in Barakah in adherence to the highest standards of quality,safety, and security, and to the UAE’s commitment of operational transparency.

Nawah is a multinational and multicultural company committed to developing a skilled nuclear energy workforce in the UAE, with a focus on the development of UAE Nationals, and ensuring the highest levels of efficiency in operating the Barakah nuclear energy plant.