SAUDI Arabia has started a tendering process for the supply of two nuclear reactors, leading to an eventual 17 reactors being installed in the Kingdom over the next 15 years, writes Vahe Petrossian.

A request for information has gone out to international suppliers for the first two reactors, according to Reuters.

The reactors, which would help free up more crude oil for export, have been under discussion for some time. French, South Korean, Chinese, Japanese and US makers of reactors have two months in which to respond.

Neighbouring United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the only Arab country in the Persian Gulf with a nuclear reactor programme; the first of four South Korean-designed plants will come on stream next year. The UAE wants eight reactors by 2050.

The Saudi target is for 17,600 megawatts of nuclear power generation capacity by 2032. A nuclear conference is being organised in Riyadh in the coming months, according to Reuters.

Non-Arab Iran has a 1000-MW reactor at Bushehr. The facility was completed earlier this decade by Russia after nearly two decades of work on the original facilities started by the then Kraftwerk Union of Germany before the 1979 revolution.

Iran has said it wants to complete another reactor started by the Germans, as well as two plants started by Framatome of France 40 years ago.

Iran’s nuclear plans provoked intense controversy in the west and contributed to an international sanctions regime that damaged its oil and gas sector. Saudi Arabia, which is unlikely to encounter any significant opposition to its nuclear plans, has in the past said it needs clean energy and would prefer to export more of its crude.

Efforts to find significant resources of gas in Saudi Arabia as a cleaner burning fuel have had limited success over the past decade.

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Saudi Arabia starts nuclear power push