Doosan Heavy signs maintenance deal for UAE nuclear plant

South Korean power plant builder Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. said Thursday it has signed a maintenance service deal for a reactor at the Barakah nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Under the deal with Nawah Energy Co., the operator of the nuclear power plant, Doosan Heavy will conduct maintenance services for turbines, generators and parts related to the nuclear reactor of the nuclear power plant for three months beginning in April 2022, it said in an emailed statement.

But Doosan Heavy did not reveal the value of the deal.   

In 2009, a Korea Electric Power Corp.-led consortium won a $20 billion contract to build four nuclear reactors in Barakah, 270 kilometers west of Abu Dhabi, marking South Korea's first export of its homegrown commercial atomic power plant.

Doosan Heavy, a major supplier of components to the Barakah plant, signed a five-year maintenance service deal for the nuclear power plant with Nawah Energy in June 2019.

"The latest deal for Unit 1 of the nuclear power plant is a separate deal from the five-year maintenance service deal," a spokesman at Doosan Heavy said by phone.

The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. (ENEC), a UAE state-run energy company, announced in April that Unit 1 of the Barakah plant started commercial operations.

The two companies agreed to strike a new maintenance service deal for each of the four nuclear reactors of the Barakah plant, when it goes into operation, he said.

The three other units have yet to go into commercial operations. (Yonhap)