ABU DHABI, 4th August, 2023 (WAM) — The Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) has published its 2022 Annual Report, detailing its nuclear regulatory activities and milestones during 2022 to ensure the safe, secure and peaceful usage of nuclear energy and radiation sources in the UAE.
During 2022, FANR carried out its regulatory activities at the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) through its resident inspectors and other deployed inspectors from its headquarters. These activities included 34 nuclear safety inspections of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant, which covered site construction, commissioning, operational readiness, power ascension testing, vendor inspection activities, and operational activities.
Major achievement
The major achievement was the issuance of the Unit 3 Operating Licence following a thorough review by FANR to ensure it meets all regulatory requirements. Moreover, FANR completed the review and assessment of Nawah’s licence application to handle and store un-irradiated nuclear fuel at Unit 4 of the BNPP, and issued the fresh fuel handling and storage licence at Unit 4.
As part of its responsibility in ensuring the security of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant, FANR conducted four inspections to assess the BNPP’s security aspects, assuring complete and correct security implementation at the Barakah site and Unit 3 readiness for operation. The security-related inspections focused on assessing the cyber security implementation, physical protection systems, information protection implementation. Furthermore, FANR implemented an ambitious security-related inspection programme by which it carried 76 regulatory inspections for FANR licencees’ facilities and other 110 inspections for radioactive source transport vehicles.
Protecting community, the environment
Moreover, FANR maintained its regulatory activities to ensure the peacefulness of all activities using nuclear material in the country. It conducted 68 safeguards-related and 149 export control-related inspections at licencees and the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in 2022, including facilitation of safeguards inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Protecting the community and the environment is of the fundamental mandates of FANR. In 2022, FANR implemented a radiation safety inspection programme which included over 260 inspections targeting high and medium risk facilities and activities across the UAE. FANR inspectors conducted inspections at Barakah to evaluate the radiation protection programmes, contamination control, radioactive waste, radiological hazard assessment, radiation monitoring instrumentation, and leak detection. Furthermore, FANR monitors the radiation levels in the environment through its Environmental Laboratory, which collected over 360 samples from soil, water, fish and others and then sent for analysis to ensure the environment and the community are safe.
Addressing nuclear emergency
In addition, FANR’s Emergency Operations Centre continued playing an important role to ensure readiness to respond to any nuclear or radiological emergencies by building and maintaining capabilities. It organised 19 drills and training activities related to addressing a nuclear emergency as well as supported the IAEA in different training activities.
On building Emirati capacity front, FANR continued to place utmost priority to train and equip Emiratis with nuclear expertise to ensure the sustainability of the regulatory mandate. In 2022, FANR maintained the implementation of its capacity building programmes to invest in local talents such as Developee Programme, Scholarship, Leadership Programme and Inspector Qualification Programme. FANR employs over 250, of which 74 percent are Emiratis. It continues to empower women in the workplace: women currently constitute 45 percent of its workforce and 44 percent holding leadership posts.