The Republic of Korea’s Nuclear Contract in the UAE

By Charles Burnard
20 May 2010

On 27 December 2009, the Republic of Korea (RoK) won a lucrative nuclear energy contract to build four reactors in the United Arab Emirates. The decision to award the $40 billion contract to a consortium led by the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) came as a surprise to many who assumed that the company’s French and American competitors were the frontrunners, having signed nuclear co-operation agreements with the UAE over the past two years. Under the contract, the RoK will build four 1,400 MW reactors, with the first expected to be completed by 2017. The remaining three are expected to be online by 2020. Though KEPCO is the lead contractor, the Korean consortium consists of more than ten separate companies, including Hyundai, Samsung, Westinghouse and Toshiba. The group was one of three companies involved in the final bid, including French company AREVA (currently ranked first in the global nuclear power industry) and a US consortia led by General Electric.

Further Analysis: Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Strategy, Global Security Issues, Pacific, Middle East and North Africa

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