UAE, Russia to sign agreement on nuclear cooperation

The United Arab Emirates and Russia plan to sign “in the near future” an agreement to work together on nuclear energy.

“After the signing of the cooperation agreement, we will have the potential to work on research reactors and we also plan to take part in the Emirates’ program with the Koreans,” Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said today in Moscow after a meeting with UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The UAE. awarded an $18.6 billion contract in December to Korea Electric Power Corp. to build four nuclear plants by 2020 as it seeks to meet increasing demand for power. The plants, to be built on the coast of western Abu Dhabi, will each have capacity of 1,400 megawatts.

The Persian Gulf nation is pursuing nuclear power while neighboring Iran faces sanctions aimed at forcing it to scale back nuclear development work. Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta said yesterday that Iran has enough uranium to produce two nuclear weapons that could be ready within two years.

Iran says its nuclear program is for civilian purposes such AS generating power. It has rebuffed United Nations Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment. The council imposed a fourth set of sanctions on Iran on June 9, backed by Russia and China, while the Congress approved US sanctions last week.

Power demand in the UAE will double to 40,000 megawatts by 2020, Anwar Gargash, the minister of state for foreign affairs, said last November. The nation prohibits the enrichment of uranium on its soil and signed a nuclear energy cooperation deal with the US.

“We are ready to cooperate with Russia in nuclear power on various aspects,” Sheikh Abdullah said after today’s meeting of the Russian-UAE commission on cooperation. “By 2030, we plan to generate as much nuclear power. so as to meet one third of our energy consumption.”