The Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in UAE is a great investment that is paying dividends today and will continue to do so in the coming decades, remarked Mohamed Ibrahim Al Hammadi, the Managing Director and CEO of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), while highlighting the plant’s contributions to large-scale decarbonisation with an exciting vision for the continued clean energy transition in the UAE.

Al Hammadi was speaking on the Titans of Nuclear podcast that features interviews with experts throughout the nuclear energy field, covering advanced technology, economics, policy, industry and more.

According to him, Enec had now passed the halfway mark for full commercial operations of the Barakah plant and is the catalyst for further innovation in the clean energy transition.

“We have no doubts that the biggest infrastructure project in the UAE, the Barakah Plant, will continue to be a success in providing secure, safe clean electricity for the nation,” he stated.

“Both Units 1 and 2 are commercially operating. By developing four identical Units, we have given ourselves a learning curve across each Unit with the development of Units 3 and 4 allowing for 50% less manpower compared to Units 1 and 2,” he added.

Lauding the young Emiratis working at the plant, Al Hammadi said: “It is important for us to build the human pipeline to ensure a resilient, reliable UAE energy grid. The highly qualified, Emirati-led team is ensuring the first two commercial Units of Barakah are just the beginning.”

He said that companies are eagerly buying clean energy certificates to demonstrate proof of the clean electricity they use, which has been produced at the Barakah Plant and Abu Dhabi’s solar facilities.

Looking forward to future technologies, Al Hammadi stated Enec was looking at investments in new small modular reactors (SMRs), as well as clean hydrogen, to continue driving the UAE’s path to Net Zero.