UAE students get 'nuclear' training in South Korea

Scores of UAE technology students have completed a two-week training course in the maintenance of nuclear reactors in South Korea as part of an agreement between the two countries, the semi-official daily Alittihad reported on Saturday.

The agreement is in line with a landmark $20-billion (Dh74 billion) contract signed between the UAE and a South Korean-led consortium just before the end of 2009 to build nuclear reactors in the emirates, the paper said.

Under the agreement, inked on December 27, the state-owned Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) and is partners in the consortium will design, build and run the reactors that will produce 5,600 MW of electricity.

While the contract to build the reactors is worth about $20 billion, the consortium expects to earn another $20 billion by jointly operating the plants for 60 years.

The reactors - the first nuclear plants in the Gulf Arab region - are scheduled to start supplying electric power to the UAE grid in 2017.
The KEPCO-led consortium includes Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Samsung C&T Corp, Doosan Heavy Industries, and US-based Westinghouse Electric, a unit of Japan's Toshiba Corp.

Alittihad said 50 students from technology and technical institutes across the UAE had received training for two weeks at the Korean Institute for Nuclear Energy in the southeastern port of Busan, South Korean second largest city.

“The students have completed training on procedures to maintain nuclear reactors at that Institute…they have also received training at other South Korean companies involved in the manufacturing of spare parts for nuclear reactors,” the paper quoted Dr Ahmed Alour, head of the students mission, as saying.

“They all have successfully completed this course….this is the first batch of UAE students to get such training in line with the signed agreement….we expect more students to get such training as nearly 2,300 UAE nationals will work at the nuclear reactors in the country, nearly 60 per cent of the planned workforce.”

Work on the first four of four nuclear plants in the UAE is expected to begin in 2012, and all reactors are due to be completed by 2020.
The UAE has said the project is intended to diversify its energy supply sources and meet its rapid growing electricity demand, which is projected to surge to around 40,000 MW in 2020 from nearly 15,000 MW in 2009.
 

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