UAE-US Nuclear Pact Comes to Fruition

UAE Ambassador to the US, Yousef Al Otaiba and the US Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Ellen Tauscher, exchanged the notes at the Department of State Treaty Room in Washington DC.

This marks the final phase of operationalising the agreement signed on January 15 last in Washington by the then US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, and the UAE Foreign Minister, Abdullah bin Zayed.

The UAE will now get adequate access to technology from the US in its plans to make nuclear energy an important component of its future energy mix.

The agreement has a term of 30 years and permits the transfer of nuclear material, equipment including reactors, and components for civil nuclear research and civil nuclear power production.

However, each deal that the UAE signs with any of the US companies in the nuclear sector will have to be individually licenced by the US Government. US officials have testified to the effect before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on October 7.

The strong commitments made by the UAE on nuclear non-proliferation had made it easier to get the Congressional nod, notable among them the decision to forego uranium enrichment and include the Additional Protocol to its agreements on safeguards with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“The UAE is an example of a country that has concluded that indigenous fuel cycle capabilities are not needed to fully enjoy the benefits of nuclear energy,” the US officials had said in their testimony.

The UAE’s first nuclear reactor is expected to go on stream in 2017, Hamad Al Kaabi, the country’s representative to the IAEA had stated recently.

Major nuclear suppliers from various countries including France the US, the UK, Japan and, South Korea have already got into intense competition for contracts from the UAE.

The UAE Ambassador in Washington has made it clear that the commercial selection process for selecting the contractor was nearing completion.

However, when contacted by the Khaleej Times here, a spokesman for the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation declined to give details on the first contracts would be announced.

“We will let you know when we have any announcement,” he said.

The investment potential in the UAE’s civil nuclear programme is estimated to be $60 billion, according to Pat Lawless, CEO of the consultancy ESR Technology.

Direct investments in nuclear reactors could be about $40 billion, the firm had said earlier.

“The agreementcreates a model for other countries in the region and around the world aspiring to address rising energy demands with clean-air nuclear energy,” said Jack Fuller, president and CEO of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH), the global nuclear energy alliance formed by GE and Hitachi in a statement here.

· ramavarman@khaleejtimes.ae

• UAE