Barakah-2 was last week granted an operating licence by the UAE nuclear regulator which also gave the green light for fuel loading to start.
In March 2020, Nawah completed loading 241 fuel asselmblies into Barakah-1 which lead to the physical startup of the unit in August. Fuel loading took about two weeks to complete at the time.
Fuel for Barakah has been manufactured under a 2015 contract by Korea Electric Power Corporation Nuclear Fuels (Kepco KNF), which receives enriched uranium from URENCO. Six companies take part in the fuel supply chain for Barakah, including also ConverDyn, UraniumOne, Orano, and RioTinto.
The Barakah nuclear station, in the Al Dhafra region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, is the first commercial nuclear energy facility in the Arab world and one of the largest nuclear energy new-build projects.
All four units are being supplied by main contractor and joint venture partner Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco). Each unit is 1,345 MW with a total net installed capacity for the station of 5,380 MW.
Construction of Barakah-2 began in April 2013 and was completed in July 2020.
