Skip to content

Barakah nuclear power plant

Barakah nuclear power plant is a nuclear power station in United Arab Emirates with 4 operating units totalling 5,668 MW gross. The site has 4 units on record in total.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATESSAUDI ARABIABarakah nuclear power plant: 4 units, 5,668 MWBarakah100 km
Operating1circle area ∝ site capacity Coastlines, borders and lakes: Natural Earth (1:10 million, public domain), which is generalised, so a coastal plant can sit a couple of kilometres off its true shoreline. Site positions: Global Nuclear Power Tracker.
Units on record
4
Operating
4
Operating capacity
5,668MW

Units

UnitStatusTypeModelGross MWOnline
Unit 1 Operating PWR APR-1400 1,417 2021
Unit 2 Operating PWR APR-1400 1,417 2022
Unit 3 Operating PWR APR-1400 1,417 2023
Unit 4 Operating PWR APR-1400 1,417 2024

Unit by unit

Each unit's rating, type and milestone dates as recorded by the Global Nuclear Power Tracker, with any correction we made to it. A dash or "not disclosed" means the source does not give the value.

Barakah nuclear power plant 1 Operating

Reactor typePressurised water reactor (PWR)
ModelAPR-1400
Size classLarge
Gross capacity1,417MW
Net capacity1,337MW
Thermal output3,983MWt
Enrichment3–5% U-235
NSSS vendorKorea Hydro & Nuclear Power
OwnerEmirates Nuclear Energy Corp100%
OperatorNawah Energy
Construction start19 Jul 2012
First criticality31 Jul 2020
Grid connection19 Aug 2020
Commercial operation1 Apr 2021

Barakah nuclear power plant 2 Operating

Reactor typePressurised water reactor (PWR)
ModelAPR-1400
Size classLarge
Gross capacity1,417MW
Net capacity1,337MW
Thermal output3,983MWt
Enrichment3–5% U-235
NSSS vendorKorea Hydro & Nuclear Power
OwnerEmirates Nuclear Energy Corp100%
OperatorNawah Energy
Construction start15 Apr 2013
First criticality27 Aug 2021
Grid connection14 Sep 2021
Commercial operation24 Mar 2022

Barakah nuclear power plant 3 Operating

Reactor typePressurised water reactor (PWR)
ModelAPR-1400
Size classLarge
Gross capacity1,417MW
Net capacity1,337MW
Thermal output3,983MWt
Enrichment3–5% U-235
NSSS vendorKorea Hydro & Nuclear Power
OwnerEmirates Nuclear Energy Corp100%
OperatorNawah Energy
Construction start24 Sep 2014
First criticality22 Sep 2022
Grid connection8 Oct 2022
Commercial operation24 Feb 2023

Barakah nuclear power plant 4 Operating

Corrected against a later source

GNPT gives a commercial operation date of 1 March 2024, before the unit's own grid connection on 23 March 2024 and the same as its first criticality. The World Nuclear Association database lists 7 September 2024.

commercial_operation: 2024-03-01 → 2024-09-07 · World Nuclear Association, Nuclear Reactor Database, Barakah 4 · verified 2026-10-22

Reactor typePressurised water reactor (PWR)
ModelAPR-1400
Size classLarge
Gross capacity1,417MW
Net capacity1,310MW
Thermal output3,983MWt
Enrichment3–5% U-235
NSSS vendorKorea Hydro & Nuclear Power
OwnerEmirates Nuclear Energy Corp100%
OperatorNawah Energy
Construction start30 Jul 2015
First criticality1 Mar 2024
Grid connection23 Mar 2024
Commercial operation7 Sep 2024

Barakah nuclear power plant in context

Barakah nuclear power plant is the only operating nuclear site in the United Arab Emirates on record, so it holds all of the country's operating capacity, and ranks 10th of 172 operating sites worldwide by gross capacity.

Its operating units started up between 2021 and 2024; the median unit is 3.5 years old, the same as the median in the United Arab Emirates.

The 4 units with both construction and grid dates on record took 8.0 to 8.6 years (median 8.3) from construction start to grid connection; the median across all reactors connected in the 2020s is 7.7 years.

No other nuclear site with an exact position in this dataset lies within 300 km.

3 operating units are rated differently now from their design net capacities: Unit 1 +2.1%, Unit 2 +2.1% and Unit 3 +2.1%.

Build time by unit

UnitConstruction startGrid connectionYearsFleet median, same decade
Unit 1201220208.17.7 (2020s)
Unit 2201320218.47.7 (2020s)
Unit 3201420228.07.7 (2020s)
Unit 4201520248.67.7 (2020s)

How these are worked out: ranks use gross operating capacity; ages count from the start-up year on record, as on the age page; build times run from construction start to grid connection, as on the build-times page; ratings are the tracker's net and design net capacity, as on the uprates page. Distances are straight-line between exact positions, so a site with only an approximate position gets none. A unit missing a date or a rating is left out of the figure that needs it.

Site detail
LocationBarakah, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Coordinates23.9695, 52.2361
Elevationabout 0 mabove sea level
SettingOn the sea coast, 0.9 km from the water
RegionWestern Asia
Units by status
Operating: 4

Elevation is read at the listed coordinates from a 30 m terrain model (SRTM 30 m). Two independent models differ by a median of 6 m across our plants and by up to about 40 m on steep or coastal ground, and a point on a shoreline can read as sea level. Distance to the water is measured to a generalised 1:10 million coastline, so a few kilometres or less is not resolved. This is context, not a design-basis or flood-risk figure.

Owners & operators
Owners
Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp
Operators
Nawah Energy

Put this plant on your own page: embed a card, or compare it with another plant.

Sources

How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data

Try

Searches every page: 1,823 reactors, 592 plants, 158 fuel chain facilities, companies, designs, accidents and notes.