Saudis Announce Plan to Build 1st Nuclear Reactor

Energy officials in Saudi Arabia announced Tuesday that they are embarking on a plan to build a nuclear reactor “for peaceful purposes,” Israel’s NRG News reported, quoting the London-based “Al-Hayat” Arabic-language daily.

Senior sources in the Muslim kingdom told the newspaper that construction of the reactor is expected to begin before the end of the calendar year.

“Construction of the first Saudi nuclear reactor will take ten years, according to the plan, although we hope that we can complete the task in less time,” the newspaper said, quoting Saudi sources.
The kingdom’s ultimate goal, the report stated, is to establish four nuclear reactors throughout the country.

Meanwhile, nuclear industry monitor, the World Nuclear Association (WNA) said, in a report released in May, that the kingdom’s goal is, in fact, 16 nuclear power reactors, “to be built over the next 20 years at a cost of more than $80 billion, with the first reactor on line in 2022.”

The Saudis hope to reach “17 GWe of nuclear capacity by 2032,” which would supply 15 percent of their projected needs by then.

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Emirates, Saudis drive for nuclear power

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- The United Arab Emirates, one of the top oil exporters, is leading the race to develop nuclear power in the Arab world and has awarded contracts worth $2 billion to provide, convert and enrich uranium.

For now, only the Emirates and Saudi Arabia have the political clout and the financial reserves to achieve nuclear power programs that will transform their economies. They also have the backing of the United States for this strategic geopolitical transition in return for pledges not to militarize their nuclear programs.
All three countries are bitterly opposed to Iran's nuclear drive. Tehran swears it's purely for peaceful purposes but the Islamic Republic's adversaries insist it masks a clandestine effort to develop nuclear weapons.

The Saudis' program, costing $100 billion, is by far the most ambitious, with 16 nuclear reactors planned by 2030, the first scheduled to start producing electricity by 2019.

But it's trailing the Emirates, which launched its program in 2009 and plans to build four 1,400-megawatt reactors. The first is scheduled to deliver electricity by 2017, with the other three coming on stream at a rate of one a year until 2020.

The uranium fuel contracts were signed by the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Persian Gulf federation and its economic powerhouse, with six companies Aug. 15.

They are ConverDyn of the United States, Uranium One of Canada, Urenco and Rio Tinto of Britain, Russia's Tenex and French energy giant Areva, and indicate the Emirates is spreading its supply of nuclear fuel among the world's main suppliers as a hedge against future geopolitical changes.

"It's a good balanced move," observed Robin Mills, an energy economist with Manaar Consulting of Dubai, the Emirates' financial hub.

ENEC, the state nuclear agency, signed a $20 billion contract to build the first reactor to a consortium led by a South Korean enterprise, Korea Electric Power Corp., which beat out more seasoned nuclear power producers in the United States, France and Japan.

The U.S. Import-Export Bank authorized a $2 billion direct loan to the Emirates' Barakah One Co. to purchase U.S. equipment and construction services to build the initial Emirates' reactor, which will be the first nuclear power plant built on the Arabian Peninsula.

The reactors will all be built along the sparsely populated Barakah region of the gulf coast about 140 miles from Abu Dhabi near the Saudi border. Between them they will produce 5,600 megawatts gross electricity.
By comparison, Saudi Arabia's 20 reactors should produce 41GW within 20 years, with geothermal and waste-to-energy systems providing another 4GW.

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Analysis: U.S. firms may miss out as Saudi nuke plan advances

DUBAI (Reuters) - Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia expects to finalize its atomic energy plans this year but the U.S. nuclear industry may miss out on multi-billion dollar contracts to turn it into a reality unless Washington and Riyadh sign a non-proliferation deal soon.

Saudi Arabia has some of the world's largest oil and gas fields but rapidly rising power demand in the kingdom threatens to absorb much of those reserves unless it can find alternative fuels for its long-term economic growth.

Riyadh, which says electricity demand could soar from around 45 gig watts (GW) to 120 GW by 2035, commissioned the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA-CARE) in 2010 to draw up a plan for reducing reliance on oil and gas.

It has signed nuclear cooperation deals with countries able to build reactors, including the United States, France, Russia, South Korea, China and Argentina. And Riyadh needs to move relatively quickly if it is to achieve its goal of opening its first nuclear plant by 2020.

"We expect the current consultation phase with the Council to last for a few more months before we can announce the Kingdom's energy sources, capacity targets, and milestone regulations," a KA-CARE spokesman said. "Soon we will be announcing what the energy mix for the reactors will be."

U.S. companies lost out to a lower-bidding Korean consortium in the first Gulf region nuclear plant tender in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2009. They could be sidelined again until Washington and Riyadh sign a "123 agreement" under the U.S. Atomic Energy Act - opening the door for U.S. nuclear exports.

Nuclear projects tend to progress slowly - thanks to their size, complexity and many safety issues.

A U.S. embassy cable released by Wikileaks warned in 2009 that Saudi Arabia pressing ahead with one of the world's largest atomic energy programs without U.S. involvement was a "near-term risk to U.S. interests."

But with congress preoccupied with U.S. presidential elections and stopping Iran's nuclear program, which it suspects includes weapons development, it is unlikely any deal will be concluded this year.

"There's high doubt that President Obama or the U.S. congress, which needs to ratify the 123 agreement, will move on this in 2012," said a source in Washington familiar with U.S. energy policy.

"I think the Saudis will have to wait and see who wins the elections first before they proceed ... this may not be until 2014 before the United States considers it."

Riyadh, may not wait until 2014 for a U.S. non-proliferation deal and has several other options if the door to U.S. companies remains shut.

"It would constrain American suppliers of reactors or of services, like conversion or enrichment, but as far as anybody else is concerned, no," Ian Hore-Lacy, spokesman for the World Nuclear Association (WNA), a group representing nuclear power companies around the world, said.



"But there would be plenty of options. Even in a worst case scenario, there are still other avenues of buying equipment and services ... It certainly wouldn't be a show stopper," he said.

It is unclear how the use of some U.S.-patented technologies by other nuclear plant builders would be affected if the United States and the kingdom do not strike a 123 deal.

The UAE signed the 123 agreement with the United States in early 2009, forfeiting its right to enrich uranium domestically, before awarding a $40 billion contract to a Korean-led consortium later that year.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, a key Saudi royal, has said the kingdom would not surrender its right to enrich its own uranium for energy use in the long term, although it expects to have to import fuel in the medium term.

"Early economic studies have indicated that although Saudi Arabia is naturally rich with uranium, using that uranium in Saudi Arabian facilities to produce fuel for electrical generation will not be economically feasible in the foreseeable future," the KA-CARE spokesman said. "Importing fuel is preferable at this time."

While concrete construction plans remain far off, Saudi Arabia has signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with several countries with experience in building nuclear plants - including the United States, France, Russia, South Korea, China and Argentina - over the last few years.

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