S. Korea wins UAE nuclear deal

SEOUL: South Korea said yesterday it had won a US$20bil deal from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to build four nuclear reactors, one of the world’s biggest nuclear power contracts.

A South Korean consortium expects to earn another US$20bil by jointly operating the reactors for 60 years.

The first reactor would be completed in 2017 to produce power and the others would be completed by 2020, the South Korean presidential Blue House also said in a statement.

The South Korean consortium includes Korea Electric Power Corp, Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Samsung C&T Corp and Doosan Heavy Industries.

The UAE is the world’s third largest oil exporter and is looking to nuclear power to meet rapidly rising electricity consumption. Petrodollar-fuelled economic growth has left the Gulf Arab state struggling to meet domestic power demand.

Abu Dhabi is driving the UAE nuclear programme. The emirate holds most of the UAE’s crude reserves, and has managed to avoid the worst of the global economic slowdown as well as the debt crisis that has hit neighbouring emirate Dubai.

The UAE plans to build three or four nuclear reactors in a first fleet to help meet an expected rise in power demand to 40,000 megawatts in 2020 from around 15,000 MW last year.