Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, the state owned nuclear company of UAE has announced that it is going ahead with its plans to set up nuclear power plant. The firm said that it has already applied for a construction license that is going to cover the first two reactors of the project.

Total worth of the project is going to be $20 billion.

The filing is said to be some 9,000 pages long and comes just a year after it was awarded hold of a South Korean consortium led by Korea Electric Power Corp.

As per the current guidelines, the application has been submitted to UAE's Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation. Sources close to the matter said that in the application previous work references have been mentioned including the ones that were done by the consortium.

The consortium is reported to have mentioned that the Emiratis work is ‘essentially the same’ as they have done in Korea and that there should be no difficulty in granting approval.

ENEC Chief Executive Mohammed al-Hammadi said that the technology to be used in the plants is safe and highest possible standards are going to be maintained.