Lloyd's joins Lightbridge in the UAE

11 August 2014

Lightbridge Corporation and Lloyd's Register Energy have won a contract to provide quality assurance, safety and construction inspection services to the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) in the United Arab Emirates.

Virginia, USA-based Lightbridge has been providing FANR with advisory services since 2009, but the new contract represents a "major milestone" for Lloyds Register Energy in supporting a national nuclear safety regulator in the inspection and oversight of a new reactor construction project, Lloyd's Register Energy's Nuclear vice-president, Mamdouh El-Shanawany, told World Nuclear News.

Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation in 2009 awarded a coalition led by Korea Electric Power Corporation a $20 billion bid to build the country's first nuclear power plant. Kepco will build four APR-1400 nuclear power reactors at Barakah, Abu Dhabi. The first unit is scheduled to start delivering electricity to the grid in 2017, while the remaining three reactors are expected to be online by 2020.

Under the terms of the client's non-disclosure agreement, El-Shanawany said he cannot state the value of the contract, but he did confirm it is a "multi-million value" deal. The contract, signed with FANR's Nuclear Safety Department, runs until the end of 2017, he said.

In November, London, UK-based Lloyd's Register was awarded a $10.6 million contract to support South Korea's nuclear power commitment to best-practice safety and risk management. Under this two-year agreement, Lloyd's Register Energy will provide Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co with independent verification services to assess their nuclear safety equipment.

El-Shanawany said Lloyd's Register is the only international independent third-party inspection agency that has "demonstrated the competence" to qualify as an Inspection agency for the Korea Electric Power Industry Code for nuclear structure.

Nick Nooren, area manager of Lloyd's Register Energy's Middle East and Africa business, said in a company statement that, to be selected as the advisor to FANR is "testament to the success of our long standing operation in the Middle East and our relationship with regulators, operators and suppliers within the nuclear sector globally."

Lloyd's Register Energy's role in the Middle East covers not only nuclear but also refining and upstream oil and gas, El-Shanawany said. The company has been operating in that region for more than 70 years as an independent provider of third-party assurance and technical engineering services, he said.

The contract with FANR underlines Lloyd's Register Energy’s aspiration to become a leading nuclear safety Technical Support Organisation (TSO), El-Shanawany said, and it "demonstrates real momentum towards how nuclear safety can be managed and controlled in the nuclear sector."

The company is a TSO "based on its capability to deliver a comprehensive range of quality and highly technical support services to the nuclear industry anywhere in the world, including governments and nuclear regulators," he said.

Lloyd's Register Energy and the wider group is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Technical and Scientific Support Organisations Forum, and it certifies and inspects new build and current operating nuclear plants, equipment and materials to a range of industry standards, he said.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News