iPhone | iPad
Android
Huawei
KT APPDOWNLOAD
Experts: UAE Must Store Own Nuclear Waste
DUBAI - Radioactive waste from any nuclear power plants in the UAE will have to be stored within the country until a way of disposing of it can be found, experts say.
The government has plans to build up to three nuclear power stations in the next 30 years, the first to be completed by 2015.
US President Barack Obama signed a deal on Wednesday night for the supply of equipment and expertise to the UAE for the construction of its civilian nuclear facilities.
Atomic energy experts met on Thursday at the GCC Nuclear Summit to discuss how the UAE could fit into a regional nuclear programme.
Dr. Adnan Shihab-Eldin, former Secretary-General to Opec, told the conference that nuclear waste from UAE power plants would have to be stored somewhere in the country.
“The UAE could ship the fuel to a country such as France or the US for reprocessing,” he said. “This will enable the uranium and plutonium to be stripped from the waste and make it safe for storage. But no country is willing to accept another country’s waste material. It will have to come back to the UAE. “The material will have to be stored in the interim. This is until there is a final solution for disposing with it altogether.” No officials from the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation or the UAE Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation were available at the conference to comment on what plans were in place to dispose of the waste. The UAE has sought close ties with the US in sharing expertise on building and operating nuclear reactors.
William Borchardt, Executive Director for Operations at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that a safe method had been refined to store the waste until a final solution for disposal is developed.
“We have done extensive research on the most safe way to store nuclear waste. We are constantly in contact with UAE authorities to share best practices that we have developed over the last 30 years.” He said that waste was often stored in ‘dry casks’ which did not have a contaminating effect on the surrounding area. The steel casks were stored above ground in leak-tight steel containers.
However, Borchardt said the measure was still a “temporary solution” designed to last several decades at most. Previously, governments had considered firing nuclear waste into space but have shied away from the idea because any accident during the launch of the rocket could have potentially catastrophic consequences. The issue has become especially pronounced in recent years owing to the world-wide shift toward nuclear power as a sustainable energy source. The UAE has complied with the International Atomic Energy Agency requirements in its nuclear programme.
It has also voluntarily relinquished its right to refine uranium. This concession minimises the risk of nuclear materials being used for military purposes, effectively enabling the agreement between the US and the UAE to be “fast-tracked.” Despite the cooperation bill being approved by President Obama on Wednesday, it will still need to pass through Congress, which may amend or reject it. Dr Mahmoud Nasreddine, Adviser to the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, said that a rejection was unlikely.
“Given that the UAE has already gone above and beyond the requirements set out by IAEA, there is no reason why this agreement should be rejected by Congress,” he said.
Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Nathan Argent said that many countries were increasingly burying the wastes as a permanent solution.
· martin@khaleejtimes.com
More news from Local Business
The latest branch is the second branch of the company at Sahara Centre and one of the eight branches opened in the UAE this year, the exchange house said in a statement
Events to be staged at the DWTC, comprising diverse sectors including construction, energy, technology, beauty, food, healthcare, environment and automotive, will mark the emirate’s post-pandemic economic recovery
Dubai FDI supports expansion by Amazon Web Services with upcoming data centres in the UAE
Some banks are now permitting their customers to purchase Bitcoin and other crypto currencies after conducting due diligence tests on payments
The percentage of using the digital transformation platform has grown to 96 per cent compared to the first half of last year, when the percentage of use did not exceed 76 per cent