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There are many concerns about possible nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. These concerns include potential problems concerning safety, the environment, nuclear weapons and cooling water.
Saudi Arabia wants to purchase nuclear reactor technology from the U.S. but there is opposition in the U.S. Congress out of fear that they may want to develop nuclear weapons.
India wants to build nuclear power reactors based on U.S. technology but there are problems with legal responsibility for nuclear accidents. The fact that India did not sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty is causing some critics to fear that India could divert technology meant for the peaceful use of nuclear energy into a nuclear weapons program.
Iran was recently locked into a very intrusive nuclear surveillance treaty to prevent their development of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, the treaty is falling apart and Iran is refining more uranium than was allowed by the Treaty. There are estimates that Iran could build a nuclear weapon in a matter of months.
However, there are also countries in the Middle East who are seriously pursuing the peaceful use of nuclear energy and nuclear power reactors are under construction in those countries.
Sultan bin Ahmad Sultan Al Jaber is a minister of state in the UAE government and also chief executive of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc). He recently discussed the new nuclear power reactors that will be connected to the UAE power grid later this years. Al Jaber spoke at an event called the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. He said, “the UAE will be the first country in the region to operate a safe commercial, peaceful nuclear power station.”
The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) is currently overseeing the construction of four identical nuclear power reactors at the Barakah site in the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi emirate. The construction of the four reactors is almost finished. The four reactors will be able to produce a combined total of five thousand six hundred megawatts of electricity when they are operational.
In spite of reassurances from Al Jaber about the safety of the reactors they are constructing, not everyone is confident that the plants under construction will be as safe as Al Jaber says. Paul Dorfman is the founder of the Nuclear Consulting Group (NCG). The NCG comprises leading academics and experts in the fields of environmental risk, radiation waste, energy policy, environmental sustainability, renewable energy technology, energy economics, political science, nuclear weapons proliferation, science and technology studies, environmental justice, environmental philosophy, particle physics, energy efficiency, environmental planning, and participatory involvement.
Dorfman has laid out a number of safety, security, and environmental concerns with regard to the design of the reactors that the UAE is constructing in partnership with the Korea Electric Power Company (KEPCO), Korea Hydro & Nuclear power (a subsidiary of KEPCO) (KHNP) and other companies.
Paul Dorfman recently published a report with the title Gulf Nuclear Ambition: New Reactors in United Arab Emirates. He pointed out in the report that cracks had been found in all of the containment buildings for the four new reactors under construction. Work had to be halted while the cracks were repaired.
Please read Part 2