IAEA Review Commends UAE Nuclear Regulator's Use of Barakah Operating Experience

The regulator hosted the mission to assess how lessons from Barakah's operation feed into its regulatory work and safety oversight. The review comes as the plant reaches five years in operation. Its first unit began commercial operation in April 2021, and the four units now supply about 25% of the UAE's electricity, according to the statement.

For a country that relies on one plant for a quarter of its power, the review is a check on whether the regulator is learning from real operations, not only from its licensing rulebook. Investors, utilities and other countries planning their first reactors watch these reviews closely.

The mission examined how FANR collects and analyses information from the plant's operation, and how it uses the results in inspections, safety assessments and regulatory decisions. The statement said the reviewers identified several good practices at the authority. These included a dedicated programme for learning from operating experience, clearly defined staff responsibilities, and applying lessons learned to its own administrative work.

The statement also cited the authority's work on staff qualification requirements and on methods to assess how human performance and work organisation affect safety. It also cited the systems FANR uses to track and analyse relevant operating experience. It did not say when the mission took place or give the team's size, and it did not mention any recommendations. The full mission report has not yet been published.

This is the second IAEA review of Barakah-related safety arrangements to be reported in recent weeks. In October, World Nuclear News reported on a separate eight-day IAEA mission, requested by the UAE government, that examined the response to a drone strike in May. The strike set fire to an electrical generator outside the plant's inner perimeter and cut off-site power to Unit 3, which then ran on emergency diesel generators. That mission said the response had been effective. It recommended stronger emergency preparedness arrangements, more resilient critical infrastructure and better coordination between nuclear safety and security bodies.

FANR, the UAE's independent nuclear regulator, said it would keep working with the IAEA and other international partners on nuclear safety.