Experts shake their heads: the new nuclear giant is like a bomb in the most unstable region

Like many countries in the world, they abandon the 20th century. the way energy is produced by controlling nuclear fission and prioritizing the sustainable 21st century and more fiscal Alternatives, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is discovering nuclear energy.

In March, the UAE completed the installation of nuclear fuel rods in one of the four new nuclear reactors at the Barakah nuclear power plant, the first of its kind on the Arabian Peninsula, reports aljazeera.com.

The Barakah project (the word for “blessing” in Arabic) has been delayed for a few years and has exceeded its budget by billions of dollars. The problems of unprecedented construction work and the lack of properly trained personnel have set foot.

The UAE insists that its intentions are peaceful. The country agreed not to enrich uranium or reprocess spent fuel and signed an additional protocol for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which gives the agency much more scope for inspections.

The UAE has also concluded the coveted Chapter 123 agreement with the United States (USA), which enables bilateral cooperation in the field of commercial nuclear energy, including the transfer of nuclear materials, equipment and components.

However, nuclear experts are announcing the potential radiation hazard posed by UAE reactors in the Persian Gulf, an ecologically fragile and geopolitically unstable terrain.
Experts are not talking about a specific risk, but several: from an ecological disaster and the theft of radioactive materials to a nuclear arms race between rivals in the region.

One of the people involved is Paul Dorfman, senior honorary researcher at the University College London Institute of Energy and founder and president of the Nuclear Consulting Group.

It advises governments on the risks of nuclear radiation, and governments listen to it. Dorfman’s Verdict on Barakah: “The wrong reactor in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Badly protected

Nuclear weapons are being developed to kill. Nuclear power plants are built to generate electricity for the public. On the other hand, any nuclear specialist will say that the line between a military weapon and a reactor used for commercial purposes is very thin.

“An old saying says that a nuclear power plant in the country is like a nuclear weapon ready to be detonated by the enemy,” said Mycle Schneider, lead author and editor of the World Nuclear Industry Report. “Ordinary people don’t know that the amount of nuclear material in a nuclear power plant is much greater than in a nuclear bomb.”

The Chernobyl accident, for example, released 400 times more radioactive material into the planet’s atmosphere than the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the IAEA said.

It is true that the leakage of radioactive materials is not necessarily caused by human error, but can also be caused by an intentional attack. There have been more such attacks in the Middle East than in any other region on our planet.

“In this area, one cannot take and simply speculate theoretically about the likelihood that someone will decide to blow up the reactor,” said Alry Jazeera, executive director of the Nonproliferation Education Center. “Investigating the events of just a few years ago reveals 13 air strikes against nuclear facilities in the region.”

Those reactors were in Iraq, Iran and Israel, including a suspected unfinished nuclear reactor in Syria that was bombed by Israel. Iraqi reactors have been destroyed, Israel has two operational reactors, and Iran has a Bush power plant. The UAE’s nuclear power plant, the first in the Persian Gulf, now needs to be included.

The Barakah nuclear power plant, located in the Dhafra region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, has four reactors, the first of which is fully completed, and was equipped with nuclear fuel rods in March this year.

Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), the company that builds and operates the nuclear power plant, says it will hit 25 percent. UAE’s electricity demand when all four reactors are operational and connected to the country’s power system.

This moment is long overdue. The Barakah was due to be completed three years ago. The project is slowing down due to a wide range of problems, from what experts call cheap construction to low-quality construction work that would certainly not meet European safety standards.

Barakah reactors are the first and only export order from South Korea’s Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). The company won the UAE tender, which offers about 30 percent. lower price compared to the other cheaper option.

“It is worrying that in such a politically turbulent place, the reactors are built in moderation and without seeming to be overly concerned,” Dorfman said. – Although quite modern, the Barakah reactor has no “third-generation defenses any more”. In other words, it is not further protected against a falling plane or a missile attack. “

Dorfman added that the (missing) defenses mentioned above consisted of a “large amount of concrete and reinforcement” (to protect the reactor from air attack) and a “nuclear trap” that, in the true sense of the word, traps the core of the molten reactor.

“Both safeguards are included in the construction of any new reactor in Europe,” he explained. Furthermore, Europe is not as volatile as the Persian Gulf, where in September last year, Saudi Arabia’s refineries in Abkaike and Khurais were attacked by 18 drones and seven cruise missiles. The attack temporarily cut the kingdom’s oil production by more than half.

“I think they are [„Barakah“ reaktoriai] they are as vulnerable as Saudi Arabia’s Abkaike oil refinery, which had a triple anti-missile defense system, “said Sokolsky.

The Barakah project has also become famous for its late publication. Cracks in the third reactor enclosure were detected in 2017, but Christer Victorsonson, CEO of the Federal Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority, only released this in November 2018 in an interview with Energy Intelligence. Cracks are a serious problem, since the purpose of protective covers is to prevent radioactive materials from entering the atmosphere in the event of an accident.

ENEC circulated a statement about cracks in the third compound even later, in December 2018, and also acknowledged that cracks had been found in the second compound in Barakah.