UK poised to play key role in UAE nuclear energy

The UK is poised to play a key role in the development of civil nuclear energy production in the UAE as the country seeks to meet growing demand for power.

By 2020, the UAE will need 40 megawatts of electricity to meet its domestic demand and the UAE's proposed nuclear energy programme will supply 15 megawatts of that, said Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, minister of state for foreign affairs.

Co-operation agreements have already been signed with France to guarantee that the UAE receives the most advanced technologies for nuclear electricity generation, news agency WAM reported.

But Gargash has also highlighted the importance of partnering with British firms to help deliver a world-class energy programme when he gave a keynote speech to the 14th annual energy conference on Nuclear Energy in the Gulf on Monday.

He said: "The United Kingdom is also a partner of great interest to the UAE in the pursuit of a civilian nuclear capability and bilateral relations between the UAE and the UK are set to be consolidated on this basis."

In August, the British Ambassador to the UAE, Edward Oakden, said he saw strong potential for British companies, in particular Rolls-Royce, to invest in the development of civil nuclear energy in the UAE.

He said that Rolls-Royce saw such high potential in the civil nuclear energy business, that had set up a division “specifically to take forward the opportunities in the civil nuclear industry that are likely to emerge worldwide in the next 20 or 30 years”.

Also speaking at the conference, Hamad Ali Al-Kaabi, UAE permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the country would work directly with the IAEA and conform with its standards in evaluating and potentially developing a nuclear energy programme.

"Significant new generation capacity must be constructed and brought on-line. It was concluded that peaceful nuclear power-generation represents an environmentally promising and commercially competitive option which could make a significant contribution to the UAE's economy and future energy security," he said.