The UAE

aims to decide on the financing structure for its $20bn nuclear program and reach

a purchase agreement for uranium next year as it proceeds with its atomic-power

plan.

Emirates

Nuclear Energy Corp, the government-owned company developing the country’s

first nuclear plants, will submit a post-Fukushima report by the end of this

year to the country’s Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation, said Fahad

al-Qahtani, an ENEC spokesman.

The

federal authority is also reviewing ENEC’s construction license application

that was submitted at the end of 2010, which will take about 18 months.

“We

expect to have the review completed around July 2012, and that will be when we

look forward to get permission to start the construction of units one and two,”

al-Qahtani told reporters in Abu Dhabi today.

“First

concrete is scheduled for November 2012, pending regulatory approval.”

ENEC

is going ahead with plans to develop four nuclear reactors in the UAE even as

other countries halt atomic programs after the March earthquake and tsunami in

Japan caused radioactive material to be released from its Fukushima plant.

Korea

Electric Power Corp. won a contract in 2009 to complete construction of the

plants from 2017 to 2020, which will make the UAE the first Gulf Arab nation

with atomic power.

The

financing structure will be ready at the end of the first quarter, al-Qahtani

said.

Korea

Electric is supplying ENEC with third-generation APR-1400 reactors, which are

“the highest standard of safety and security,” he said.

The UAE

will select a uranium supplier in the first half of next year, Hamad al-Kaabi,

the national representative for International Nuclear Cooperation, said today.

“Our

nuclear policy states that we would favor sending back the spent fuel to the

country that supplied it,” al-Kaabi said at a conference in Abu Dhabi. “If that

is not feasible, we would consider storing it in the UAE, in underground

storage, for example.”

The Gulf

state has signed several bilateral agreements with potential fuel suppliers and

hopes to conclude a deal with Australia in the “near future,” said Kaabi, who

is also the country’s permanent representative to the International Atomic

Energy Agency.

The

Emirates should devote “more attention” to determining how to dispose of used

nuclear fuel as part of its energy development program, government adviser and

former United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said in February.

Options for storing the fuel include above- or underground storage of spent

fuel rods or leasing fuel that would then be sent back to the provider once

it’s been used, he said.

The UAE

won’t seek to enrich uranium or reprocess spent fuel rods, Blix said.