Nuclear Monitor #938
Jan van Evert
Picture: NDTV World
A drone strike sparked a fire on the edge of the United Arab Emirates’ Barakah nuclear power plant on Sunday May 17th. The UAE Defense Ministry said three drones came over its western border with Saudi Arabia, two others were intercepted. Bakarah is the only nuclear power plant in the Arab world and consist of four reactors of 1350 MW. It can provide a quarter of the electric energy needs in the UAE. The International Atomic Energy Agency said the strike caused a fire in an electrical generator and one reactor was being powered by emergency diesel generators. The IAEA has been informed by the UAE that off-site power was restored to unit 3 of the Barakah plant the next day.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, whom the UAE has battled as part of a Saudi-led coalition, claimed to have targeted the plant while it was under construction in 2017, which the UAE denies.
