UAE: production at Barakah Nuclear Plant unimpeded by Covid-19

Mohamed Al Hammadi, CEO of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) has announced that the UAE’s Barakah nuclear power plant has not recorded a single case of Covid-19 among its 700 employees, and that the spread of the virus has not impeded development at the facility.

Over the weekend, the UAE Government announced 781 new cases of Covid-19 within the country, taking the total number of cases to 18,198, of which 198 lead to deaths. As of today, the UAE has the 29th-most cases in the world, according to Worldometers, placing the country between Qatar and Israel. However, with 1.2 million tests having been completed, the UAE is the tenth-most tested country in the world, and ENEC is optimistic that this diligence will lead to uninterrupted operations at Barakah.

In a virtual fireside chat held last week with Frederick Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center, Al Hammadi claimed that despite the pandemic, the corporation was in the “advanced stages” of starting up the first of the facility’s four reactors.

Read more about the impacts of Covid-19 on the Barakah plant here.