Nawah Energy Company, the joint venture nuclear operating subsidiary formed by the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) and the Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco), said it has signed a long-term maintenance services agreement with Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) for its Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant.

KHNP is a subsidiary of Kepco, Enec's joint venture partner and prime contractor for the Barakah nuclear energy plant, the first of its kind in the Arab World, located in the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi.

As per the contract, KHNP consortium comprising Kepco's plant service and engineering unit, will provide maintenance services to support routine and outage maintenance activities of the four APR1400 units of the Barakah nuclear energy plant, under the leadership of Nawah and in strict accordance with the UAE’s nuclear energy regulator’s quality and safety standards.

KHNP operates and maintains the Shin Kori 3 and 4 nuclear energy plants in South Korea. These APR1400 reactors are the reference plants for Barakah, and therefore KHNP will bring specific experience to Barakah in maintaining this type of nuclear energy reactor.

KHNP consortium was signed up as maintenance services partner as a result of its demonstrated capacity to work under the leadership of Nawah to support safe and quality-driven maintenance work at the Barakah plant.

It will play a key role in providing maintenance services, including planning and execution, under the leadership of Nawah.

Under Nawah’s leadership, KHNP will also conduct testing, diagnostics, inspections, maintenance and replacement services, amongst others for both the nuclear and non-nuclear components of the Barakah plant.

The KHNP consortium will provide highly-qualified manpower in the form of supervisory and management experts, as well as maintenance leadership, who will be deployed to support the safety and quality-led maintenance of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant.

Nawah CEO Mark Reddemann said: "We are delighted to have secured a long-term maintenance services relationship with KHNP and KPS. Through this agreement, we have created a robust framework of maintenance services providers that combine the best-in-class maintenance expertise in thermal and nuclear plant infrastructure and expertise in the APR1400 technology."

"The approval of these maintenance agreements stands as a firm commitment to securing the best international partners to ensure safe and quality-led nuclear maintenance at Barakah," he stated.

KHNP president and CEO Jaehoon Chung said: "Now we have opened another chapter for a comprehensive collaboration system under which Team Korea and Team UAE will work together as a team. KHNP and KPS will assign its talented resources with outstanding technical expertise including high-level officials to the Barakah plant to support its safe and reliable operation."

"We will proactively support the UAE in its endeavours to secure its own capabilities to successfully operate the plant through localisation," stated Chung.

"I am confident that Team Korea, as the only party across the globe that has experience in operating APR1400, can contribute to the safe and reliable operations of the Barakah plant by playing a crucial role in its maintenance project. Furthermore, I hope our engagement in the project can continue to be extended," he added.-TradeArabia News Service