ENEC achieves 75m safe work hours at Barakah Nuclear Energy plant

The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) has achieved 75 million safe work hours at the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, reflecting ENEC’s commitment to the highest standards of safety, security and quality in the development of the UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Programme.

Mohamed Al Hammadi, Chief Executive Officer of ENEC, Mark Reddemann, Chief Executive Officer of Nawah Energy Company, Nasser Al Nasseri, Chief Executive Officer of Barakah One Company, HoPyeong Lee, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer of the Korea Electric Power Corporation, KEPCO, and a number of senior management officials from ENEC and its subsidiaries attended a special ceremony held at the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant to celebrate the safety achievement.

Working together, ENEC and KEPCO’s achievement of 75 million safe work hours without a Lost Time Injury, LTI, represents a significant industrial safety accomplishment and is the result of their exceptional safety culture, dedication to the continuous improvement of everyday work practices and empowerment of employees to ensure their own safety through a range of safety-related practices and tools.

"This accomplishment is a reflection of our enduring culture of safety and steadfast commitment to upholding the highest international standards of security, transparency and non-proliferation," said Eng. Mohamed Al Hammadi, CEO of ENEC.

"Our numerous safety programmes, continuous learning and extensive collaboration with our Prime Contractor and Joint Venture partner, the Korea Electric Power Corporation, have enabled us to achieve this significant safety milestone."

The accomplishment comes as Nawah Energy Company, the operating and maintenance subsidiary of ENEC, is steadily and safely progressing with its operational readiness activities. The loading of the first nuclear fuel assemblies into Unit 1 is expected to take place in Q1 2020, once all requirements have been met and Nawah is in receipt of the Operating Licence from the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation, FANR, the UAE’s independent nuclear regulator.

ENEC is building four identical nuclear energy units at the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi Emirate. The overall construction of the four units is more than 93 per cent complete. Units 4, 3 and 2 are over 83 percent, 91 per cent and 95 per cent complete, respectively.

The four units at Barakah will be able to generate up to 25 per cent of the UAE’s electricity by producing 5,600 MW of clean electricity, preventing the release of 21 million tons of carbon emissions each year. This is to equivalent to removing 3.2 million cars off the roads annually, which is close to the total number of cars registered in the UAE.

WAM