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UAE's first nuclear reactor expected to be ready in 2017

23 December 2014 00:09 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The first nuclear reactor in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will start to produce electricity by 2017, a nuclear energy corporation official said here on Monday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Mohammed Al-Hammadi, chef executive of Emirates nuclear energy corporation, said the first of four nuclear reactors being built in the UAE, with the help of Korea Electric Power or KEPCO, will be ready to produce electricity by 2017 while the other three will be ready by 2020.

Al-Hammadi made the remarks at the 10th Arab energy conference.

"When they become fully operational in 2020, they will generate 25 percent of UAE power needs," the official WAM news agency quoted him as saying.

He also said that the second and third reactors are also under construction, while the site for the last reactor is being prepared.

In 2009, an international consortium led by the state-run KEPCO won a bid worth 20.4 billion U.S. dollars to construct four nuclear power plants in Baraka, west of the UAE capital Abu Dhabi.