Nuclear Energy Insider: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey and South Africa Announce $300 Billion of New Construction Projects at Annual Meeting
(PRWEB) July 12, 2013 -- The MENA nuclear construction market has boomed since 2009 when KEPCO secured the Middle East’s first tender for 4 new units to be constructed in the United Arab Emirates at a cost of $20bn. That nuclear program is on schedule with the country’s first nuclear reactor expected to start operations in 2017.
Further significant developments over the past year include:
• Saudi Arabia’s atomic energy ambitions are grand enough to grant several reactor vendors multi-billion dollar contracts to keep them busy building for decades. More than one design would avoid over-stretching one reactor builder and allow the kingdom to sign long-term contracts with several of its biggest trading partners.
The Kingdom sees unique benefits of diversifying acquired technologies in terms of job creation, value chain localization, and knowledge transfer. It expects the first units to be built by 2022. This complex and sizeable endeavor is by far the region’s largest; with an estimated budget of over $250 Billion.
• Turkey wants to build a home-grown nuclear industry over the next decade as it seeks to cut reliance on costly imported oil and gas, even though the nuclear newcomer outsourced its first two atomic power plants to foreign firms.
Turkey’s first nuclear plant, AKKUYU, under ownership of Russia's Rosatom, aims to be operational in 2019. Rosatom Corp. has invited EDF to help build the power plant as the Russian state atomic power company seeks partners for its new reactors.
A $22 billion contract has been awarded to a Japanese-French consortium to build Turkey’s second nuclear power plant at Sinop on the Black Sea coast.
• Jordan will soon decide which of competing Russian and French-Japanese led consortiums will build two one-gigawatt nuclear reactors near the capital IN THE Al Mafraq Province at an estimated cost of €12 billion.
• Egypt has agreed that the Russians will help in conducting studies at the Dabaa nuclear station and to develop the experimental reactor in Anshas. A delegation is expected to begin work on the plans of building a 4 GWt of nuclear power facilities by 2025.
For companies looking to take advantage of the global nuclear renaissance, this is the only region where multi-billion dollar nuclear projects require a fully external supply chain to complete new build programs in the most challenging conditions. As such, the 4th Annual MENA Nuclear Construction Conference (September 24-25, Dubai) is the only meeting that will bring together key buyers from each nation to find the best way to deliver their plants on time and on budget.
For further information on the region’s largest, longest-running and most well-established nuclear energy event, including exclusive discounts, full agenda and detailed speaker line up download the conference brochure here: nuclearenergyinsider.com/mena/brochure
James Sampson, Nuclear Energy Insider, http://www.nuclearenergyinsider.com/mena/, +44 (0)207 375 7574, [email protected]
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