In December 2009, Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation awarded a coalition led by Korea Electric Power Corporation a $20 billion bid to build the first nuclear power plant in the UAE. Barakah was chosen as the site to build four APR-1400 nuclear reactors successively, with the first scheduled to start supplying electricity in 2017. The plant's ground-breaking ceremony was held on 14 March 2011, including Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Construction of the first unit was begun in the afternoon of 18 July 2012, ahead of its scheduled date in late 2012. This happened despite delays being mooted in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. In May 2013, construction started on the second unit, which was then expected to take five years. The first safety-related concrete was poured for Unit 3 in September 2014. Unit 4 started construction in September 2015. In 2011, Bloomberg reported that following detailed finance agreements, the build cost was put at $30 billion: $10 billion equity, $10 billion export-credit agency debt, and $10 billion from bank and sovereign debt. South Korea may earn a further $20 billion from operation, maintenance and fuel supply contracts. A later Bloomberg report indicates the price as $25 billion. In 2014, the Barakah 1 reactor vessel was delivered onsite and site preparation works for Barakah 3 and 4 started. Meanwhile, the concrete-and-steel reactor containment building for Barakah 1 was completed in January 2015. In March 2015, ENEC applied to Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation for operating licences for Units 1 and 2. In September 2015, first concrete was poured for Unit 4. More than 18,000 staff were then working on the construction of all 4 units. In December 2017, the rebel Houthis group claimed to have fired a cruise missile in the direction of the Barakah plant, but the Emirati authorities said that no missiles had actually reached the UAE. As of 22 March 2018, the project's total cost was refined to $24.4 billion to complete. Startup of Unit 1 was delayed to late 2018. As reported on 17 December 2018, unit 1 was declared complete in 2018, however it was not expected to begin operations until late 2019 or early 2020. In January 2020 it was announced that fuel loading would commence that quarter, about 2.5 years later than the original planned date of August 2017. FANR had raised 400 adverse findings in a review requiring rectification of various technical, organisational and management issues. On March 2020, ENEC announced the completion of the fuel assemblies loading into the Unit 1 reactor.
Unit 3 is 92% complete as of July 2020, and cold hydrostatic testing was undertaken.
Unit 4 is 85% complete as of July 2020.
Overall construction completion rate for the entire plant is at 94%, as of July 2020. Nuclear fission was started in one of the four reactors in July 2020.
Criticism
In March 2019, Qatar lodged a letter of complaint to the International Atomic Energy Agency regarding the Barakah nuclear power plant, stating concerns about its safety and lack of co-operation with regional states on the project as well as that it poses a serious threat to regional stability and the environment. The UAE denied that there are safety issues with the plant stating that Barakah adheres to the highest standards of nuclear safety and security.
