The United Arab Emirates, which operates the only commercial nuclear energy station of the Gulf, is for the first time taking special measures to protect the project of the devastating impact from climate change.

Since September, the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center have been monitoring the climate and the environment around the Barakah plant from space, officials of the regulatory body said in Abu Dhabi. They have been collecting information on sea level, earth and water temperatures, earthquakes and other threats, and evaluating their severity and potential impact.

Measures are the last example of the broad impact of climate change and how governments are forced to adapt to prevent calamities. Extreme climatic events such as heat and rain become more intense, frequent and more difficult to predict, which raises important risks of critical infrastructure. Places like the Middle East, where summer temperatures around 50 ° C (122f) are more exposed than most.

Few other countries have resorted to satellite technology to monitor the risks facing energy infrastructure so far, said Fanr’s general director Christer Viktorson. The National Grid Plc of the United Kingdom said at the end of 2022 that it was looking to use satellite images to increase the resistance of its electricity and gas networks. Fanr expects your program to warn the authorities of any threat with a long time. The Barakah plant is located near a warm and arid desert that extends to Saudi Arabia. The sea, which supplies water to cool the plant, is heating at an alarming pace.

“We need to make sure we have a reliable production of energy in Barakah at least for 60 years,” Viktorson said. The 5.6-Gigawatt plant only reached complete commercial operations last year.

Photography: Engineers at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai. Photo credit: Andrea Decozo/Getty Images Asiapac

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