KHNP's Management Rights Unaffected

The long-term technical consulting agreement between the United Arab Emirates and EDF, France's national power company, has raised questions over Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power’s (KHNP) exclusive rights to manage Barakah nuclear power plant.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) President Chung Jae-hoon, who is currently staying in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has clarified the ongoing controversy over the UAE's recent deal with a French firm regarding the management of its Barakah nuclear power plant.

“The long-term service agreement between the UAE and EDF, France's national power company, is a small-scale technical consulting contract not related to power plant management,” he said on his Facebook account on Dec. 4, adding, “The five-year contract worth US$10 million is related to nuclear safety, radiation safety and protection and no notification was provided for us because the value of the contract is below US$20 million.”
 

Earlier, news came out that Nawah and EDF signed the service agreement with each other. Nawah is in charge of the operation of the Barakah nuclear power plant in the UAE. After the news, some pointed out that the agreement can affect KHNP’s exclusive rights to manage the Barakah nuclear power plant. The KHNP president’s Facebook mention was to clarify the misunderstanding.

“Nawah has signed this type of contracts on an ongoing basis with the United States, Britain, South Africa and so on in various fields such as safety training and case-by-case benchmarking,” he went on to say, continuing, “We recently agreed on prior notifications so that unnecessary misunderstanding is not repeated down the road.”
 

The KHNP president stays in Abu Dhabi from Dec. 3 to 6 to meet with the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and Nawah and discuss the upcoming long-term maintenance agreement for the Barakah nuclear power plant. An international tender for the agreement is scheduled for the first half of next year. KHNP already signed an operating support services agreement with Nawah. The former can obtain exclusive management rights once it clinches the upcoming contract.

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