Saudi Arabia plans to extract uranium for nuclear program

Saudi Arabia plans to extract uranium within the Kingdom as part of its nuclear power program, as it sees this as step towards self-sufficiency with regard to atomic fuel, Reuters reported citing a senior official.

This would make economic sense too, said Hashim bin Abdullah Yamani, head of the Saudi government agency tasked with the nuclear plans, the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE).

Yamani did not specify whether Saudi Arabia seeks to also enrich and reprocess uranium – steps in the fuel cycle which are especially sensitive as they can open up the possibility of military uses of the material.

At the international nuclear power conference in Abu Dhabi, organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he said that the Kingdom will soon pass laws for its nuclear program and will have set up all of the regulations for its nuclear regulator by the third quarter of 2018.

“The IAEA also has been requested to conduct an integrated review of our nuclear infrastructure during the second quarter of 2018,” he said, which will allow the agency to assess efforts to prepare Saudi infrastructure “to introduce nuclear power for peaceful purposes.”

The world’s top oil exporter says it wants to tap atomic power for peaceful purposes only in order to diversify its energy supply and will award a construction contract for its first two nuclear reactors by the end of 2018.

Saudi Arabia is reaching out to potential vendors from South Korea, China, France, Russia, Japan and the United States for its first two reactors, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The Kingdom is considering building some 17.6 Giga Watts of nuclear capacity by 2032, the equivalent of about 17 reactors.

Preliminary studies have estimated Saudi Arabia has around 60,000 tons of uranium ore, Maher Al Odan, the chief atomic energy officer of KACARE previously said at an electricity forum in Riyadh on Oct. 11, the report said.