ISLAMABAD – Saudi Arabia wants to enrich uranium in the future to fuel itsplanned nuclear power programme, *Reuters *reported its energy ministersaying today.
The world’s top oil exporter has said it wants to use the metal todiversify its energy mix, but uranium enrichment also opens up thepossibility of military uses of the material, the issue at the heart ofWestern and regional concerns over Iran’s atomic work, Middle East Monitorhas reported.
“We are proceeding with it cautiously … we are experimenting with twonuclear reactors,” Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman said, referring to a plan toissue a tender for the Gulf Arab state’s first two nuclear power reactors.
He told an energy conference in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi that ultimatelythe kingdom wanted to go ahead with the full cycle of the nuclearprogramme, including the production and enrichment of uranium for fuel.
The tender is expected in 2020, with US, Russian, South Korean, Chinese andFrench firms involved in preliminary talks about the multi-billion-dollarproject.
But the issue of uranium enrichment has been a sticking point withWashington, especially after Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said in 2018that the kingdom would develop nuclear arms if regional rival Iran did.
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Saudi Arabia has backed President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure”campaign against Iran after he withdrewlinktheUnited States from a 2015 nuclear pact that curbed Iran’s disputed nuclearprogramme in exchange for sanctions relief.
In order for US companies to compete for Saudi Arabia’s project, Riyadhwould normally need to sign an accord on the peaceful use of nucleartechnology with Washington, under the United States Atomic Energy Act.
Saudi officials have said they would not sign a deal that would deprive thekingdom of the possibility of enriching uranium or reprocessing spent fuelin the future – both potential paths to a bomb.
