Adra Nuclear Power Station

From JSC Archives
Jump to navigationJump to search

Adra Nuclear Power Station (Arabic: محطة الطاقة النووية بعدرا maḥaṭṭat aṭ-ṭāqah an-nũwīyah bi-‘adrā) is a seven-reactor nuclear power plant located in the Syrian municipality of Adra, approximately 20 km northeast of Damascus. It is the largest nuclear power plant in the Arab Union by both physical size and amount of energy generated annually. Adra Nuclear Power Station provides the majority of electrical power to the large urban and suburban region centred on the federal capital of Nasser City, which includes the cities of Damascus, Amman, Irbid, most of southern Lebanon including Beirut, Tiberias, Nazareth, Jenin, Haifa and Jerusalem.

Construction began in 2007 and the nuclear power plant commenced operations in September 2016. Following its opening, the over three-decades-old Saadnayel Nuclear Power Station near the Lebanese city of Zahle was decommissioned, with the new Adra Nuclear Power Station fulfilling the former plant's entire output quota with less than a fifth of its energy production capacity. Adra Nuclear Power Station is owned and operated by the National Nuclear Energy Agency under the federal government's Ministry of Energy. As of 2020, the power station employs over 4000 personnel, making it the largest employer in Adra and a major staple of the regional economy.