International firms line up for Saudi nuclear programme

05 December 2017
Kingdom is planning to develop a 2.8GW plant for its first atomic power facility

The US’ Westinghouse has joined major nuclear power providers as potential bidders for Saudi Arabia’s planned nuclear power programme.

On 4 December, Khalid al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s Minister for Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, said that US firms would be invited to participate in any bidding process or discussions for the kingdom’s planned nuclear energy programme.

The King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA-Care), the body overseeing the kingdom’s planned nuclear power programme, received request for information (RFI) from a number of the world’s largest nuclear power providers including: Westinghouse, France’s EDF Russia’s Rosatom.

MEED reported in September that Saudi Arabia was carrying out technical and economic feasibility studies for the first reactors, and also looking at possible locations for the kingdom’s first nuclear project, which is planned to be a 2.8GW facility.

Speaking to MEED in January, a senior KA-Care representative said the kingdom was planning to develop nuclear energy in the kingdom through three main programmes.

The first two of these will involve building and installing nuclear power plants, with the third targeting mining uranium resources to fuel the plants, sources close to the kingdom’s nuclear programme have told MEED.

The first part of the programme will involve building conventional nuclear power plants at various sites around the country. Minister of Energy & Mineral Resources Khalid al-Falih revealed at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi on 16 January that plans were moving ahead for the kingdom’s first major two nuclear reactors, which would produce total power of 2.8GW.

Riyadh is also planning to develop nuclear power at several locations through SMART (System-integrated Modular Advanced Reactor) facilities, which will produce nuclear power from much smaller reactors. Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah City for Atomic & Renewable Energy (KA-Care) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with South Korea in November last year to develop the technology in the kingdom.

According to a source at KA-Care, Saudi Arabia owns a percentage of the intellectual property (IP) rights for the technology, and is already moving ahead with plans to begin to develop the first two SMART reactors, which will have a capacity of about 100MW each, within the next four years.

The kingdom is also seeking to launch a programme to mine uranium, which will be used to produce fuel for the nuclear plants and also for other uses such as nuclear medicine. Developing the kingdom’s mining sector is a key pillar of the Saudi Vision 2030, which was launched in April 2016.

While progress is being made with plans for the country’s first conventional and SMART reactors, Riyadh has not publicly committed to a target for total nuclear power capacity. Previously, senior government officials have said the kingdom was targeting 17-19GW of nuclear power in the coming two decades.

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