UAE, Korea conclude deal for training on nuclear power industries

Dr. Abdullatif Al Shamsi, Director General of Institute of Applied Technology (IAT), Mohamed Al Hammadi, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and Jun Yeon Byun, Vice President Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), signed yesterday an agreement for a four-week summer training programme in the Higher Technology College of Electrical Sciences.

Under the agreement, ENEC and KEPCO will coordinate a trip of the first batch of IAT students to get on-job training during the next summer in the South Korean nuclear plants.

The three officials told a press conference yesterday that the agreement represents the first practical step of the academic side of the Dh75 billion (over US$20 billion) contract signed by the UAE and Korea for designing and building four civil nuclear power plants for the UAE peaceful nuclear energy program.

Dr Al Shamsi said the training programme for the grade 11 students of the IAT will feature theoretical and practical knowledge in Korean nuclear plants that will help them gain expertise. They will learn operational theories of measurement devices and principles and concepts of nuclear power generation.

The IAT has developed an integrated nuclear power curricula and decided to teach it as of the next academic year. The final goal is to develop a sustainable, domestically sourced nuclear energy workforce that is dominated by competent national talent.

Al Hammadi said the nuclear cooperation agreement between the two countries calls for the KEPCO team to design, build and help operate four 1,400-MW civil nuclear power units. The first of the four units is scheduled to begin providing electricity to the grid in 2017, with the three later units being completed by 2020.

The contract also calls for extensive training, human resource development, and education programs as the UAE builds the capacity to eventually staff the vast majority of the nuclear energy program with national talent, and develops the industrial infrastructure and commercial businesses to serve a thriving nuclear energy industry.

Central to the UAE's approach to developing a nuclear energy program has been the importance of building a qualified workforce in the short and long term.

ENEC has joined with the Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research, the Institute of Applied Technology, the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation, other parts of the UAE educational system, as well as universities internationally to ensure that there will be a reservoir of talent, both Emirati and expatriate, well into the future.

According to him, current estimates are that the program will need between 2,100 and 2,300 engineers, technicians and administrators by 2020. 'ENEC is coordinating plans with the IAT to train 60 per cent of the total required workforce,' he added.
He announced that the first group of trainees will leave to Korea on 10 July 2010.
Byun said the group will be divided into two teams in the fields of electricity and mechanics.

The programme, he added, will take the trainees into field trips to Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction, Hyosung Heavy Industry and nuclear plants.