Khalifa students first to use training portal

Building up the academic institutions to train Abu Dhabi's future nuclear power plant staff is as challenging a task as planning the nuclear programme itself.

It will be years before the Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research will have a state-of-the-art nuclear power plant simulator.

Until then, future employees of Abu Dhabi's nuclear sector can work with an online portal created by the global watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Abu Dhabi's students will be the first in the world to test it. The e-learning programme is part of the Government's effort to build a nuclear training centre for operators of the capital's planned reactors, the first of which is scheduled to come online in 2017.

It is counting on Khalifa University to offer most of the training, from undergraduate electives in nuclear energy to an eventual doctoral programme.

"I'm hoping after three years we will have at least a pool to select from rather than have to send them abroad," says Muhra al Ali, the acting deputy director general for administration of the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR).

But building a nuclear education institution from scratch can pose as much of a challenge as building the nuclear programme itself, said Yanko Yanev, the head of the IAEA's nuclear knowledge management unit.

Mr Yanev, who was in Abu Dhabi to launch the online portal, remembered the long road to creating Bulgaria's academic institutions for nuclear training.

"All our students were sent to study in Moscow," he said. "It took five to 10 years until we could meet the demand … there's no university in the world that can train 500 people."

The two nuclear bodies, FANR and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, have provided scholarships, funds for training programmes and have helped entice nuclear specialists from established centres such as the Sandia National Laboratories in the US.

"We started with a blank sheet of paper," says Dr Philip Beeley, the head of Khalifa University's nuclear-training programme. "We will have one of the most modern programmes in the world."

The university is planning for a simulator modelled on the APR-1400, the Korean reactor that Abu Dhabi has chosen, and at least four laboratories for nuclear-related research.

Dr Beeley is formulating the nuclear programme at Khalifa University with an eye on other countries in the region that are laying the groundwork for potential nuclear power production.

Qatar and Kuwait are evaluating plans, while Saudi Arabia has launched a ministry-level centre for nuclear and renewable energy.

Dr Beeley says the university will not need to edit its curriculum to account for the disaster at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plants.

"We've already got built in everything that is needed in terms of safety and responsibility," he says.