
Exciting news for the energy industry after the UAE’s first nuclear power plant began commercial operations. Abu Dhabi’s Barakah plant (no relation to baraka), the first of its kind in the Arab world, is located on the Gulf coast, just to the east of Qatar. One of its four reactors, which uses high-tech hailing from South Korea, has now begun the process of nuclear fission.
The country is quite literally building its own nuclear industry from scratch, despite facing some issues over the past few years, such as licensing delays. When the whole plant is up and running, it will be able to produce 5,600 megawatts of total capacity — which is about 25% of the UAE’s peak energy demand. Not bad!