The UAE Insurance Authority (IA) has started coordinating the establishment of an insurance pool to be formed by local insurers to provide insurance coverage to nuclear energy projects in the country.
Mr Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy and Chairman of the IA, stressed the importance of collaboration among insurance companies in many fields especially in areas that cannot be handled by a single insurance company, such as nuclear plant projects and aviation, because of a lack of capacity, reported Alittihad.
The UAE is the first country in the GCC to start developing nuclear energy, and is currently constructing its first nuclear power project which will supply 25% of the UAE’s electricity needs when completed. Construction started in 2012 and is scheduled for completion in 2020.
In 2012, the UAE government set the liability for nuclear facility operators at roughly AED2.5 billion (US$680.7 million), under a new Federal law to regulate the provisions and determine the scope of civil liability and compensation for damages that could result from a nuclear accident.
Under the new Civil Nuclear Liability law, the operator of a nuclear facility is solely and exclusively liable for damages arising from a nuclear incident as defined in the 1997 Vienna Convention. It also determines the financial security that the operator must maintain and further elaborates upon the implementation of the 1997 Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage.
Nuclear energy programmes
At the start of this year, there were seven countries in the MENA region working on nuclear energy programmes: the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. A few years ago, there had been more countries – Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait – planning such plants. But several have suspended their plans since the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Saudi Arabia could start building nuclear plants within 12 months, Mr Khalid Al-Falih, the country’s energy minister, said. Also building nuclear energy plants is Turkey which plans to have three operational nuclear power plants by 2023. The construction of the first unit has begun with the plants set to enter into service in 2022–25.
In 2011, Iran became the first country in the region to operate a nuclear reactor.
One concern about operating nuclear plants in the region is attacks by terrorists on the facilities.
AED1 = US$0.27