nuclear-news

United Arab Emirates’ $30 billion nuclear- power program,

U.A.E.’s Nuclear Power Program Said to Cost $30 Billion, November 24, 2011, By Ayesha Daya and Stefania Bianchi   (Bloomberg) — The United Arab Emirates’ nuclear- power program, a joint venture between state-owned Emirates Nuclear Energy
Corp. and Korea Electric Power Corp., will cost about $30 billion,
according to two people with knowledge of the project.

Financing will be split into one-third equity and two- thirds debt,
the people said, declining to be identified because talks are
confidential. Fahad al-Qahtani, a spokesman for Emirates Nuclear, said
the financing strategy has yet to be decided. Korea Electric declined
to comment about the cost of the project.

Emirates Nuclear is going ahead with plans to develop four nuclear
reactors in the U.A.E. 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, the
country’s biggest electricity producer, won a contract in 2009 to
complete the plants from 2017 to 2020, which will make the U.A.E. the
first Gulf Arab nation with atomic power.

Abu Dhabi will provide most of the $10 billion equity, and $10 billion
of the debt is likely to come from export-credit agencies, mainly from
South Korea, one of the people said.

Work in Progress

The remaining $10 billion will be a mix of bank financing and
sovereign debt, the person said. Abu Dhabi may consider a
government-debt issue and Emirates Nuclear may raise debt backed by
the government, the person said. A financing agreement will probably
be reached by the end of 2012, the second person said.

“It’s a work in progress,” al-Qahtani said by phone from Abu Dhabi
yesterday. “We haven’t yet finalized the finance strategy and we are
still looking at different options.”
The U.A.E. will decide on the financing structure by the end of March,
al-Qahtani said earlier this month…..
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-24/u-a-e-s-nuclear-power-program-said-to-cost-30-billion.html

November 25, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, MIDDLE EAST, politics