United Arab Emirates’ Barakah One Company has secured a US$2bn direct loan from the US Export-Import Bank (US Exim) to finance the first nuclear power plant on the Arabian Peninsula.

Barakah One Company will use the loan to build four nuclear reactor power-generating units on a coastal strip along the Arabian Gulf, near Abu Dhabi. The plant will become one of the largest nuclear-generating facilities in the world.

Korea Electric Power Corporation will supply the reactors to provide capacity of 5,600MW of gross electricity.

Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric Company, along with Toshiba Corporation will provide the reactor coolant pumps, reactor components, controls, engineering services and training.

The loan ranks as US Exim’s largest transaction in the United Arab Emirates to date and is also its first greenfield nuclear-plant financing since the late 1990s, the bank says in a statement.

According to estimates from the US Census Bureau statistics, the line of credit will support approximately 5,000 American jobs across 17 states.