UAE awarded to procure fuel to 6 major international companies

The UAE has awarded $3 billion worth of contracts to six international firms to procure fuel for its nuclear power plants, expected to start up by 2017. The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) achieved another milestone towards an ambitious nuclear energy programme by announcing the results of the tenders, which it floated for the nuclear fuel procurement in July in order to create a strategy to cover supply for the first 15 years of operations. The contracts cover three areas including purchase of natural uranium concentrates; its conversion into material ready for enrichment; enrichment services in which the material is enriched to a level that is used in the fuel for nuclear energy plants and purchase of enriched uranium product. The enriched uranium will be supplied to Kepco Nuclear Fuels (KNF), a part of Kepco which will manufacture the fuel assemblies for use in the four power plants.