The Saudi Energy Minister confirmed on several occasions that Saudi Arabia has large quantities of uranium
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the Saudi Energy Minister, said that his countries will start using locally sourced uranium to build their nuclear forces.
He added that a recent discovery proved the presence of different types of uranium in the interior of Saudi lands.
Saudi Arabia is running an emerging nuclear program that it aims to expand through uranium enrichment, which is a sensitive field due to its importance in manufacturing nuclear weapons.
Riyadh has said it wants to use nuclear power to diversify the energy sources on which the country depends. However, it is not possible to predict where the Saudi nuclear ambition might end. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in 2018 that his country would develop nuclear weapons if its traditional rival for influence in the Middle East, Iran, did so.
The Saudi energy minister said, “The kingdom seeks to exploit its domestic uranium resources in several ways, including entering into joint ventures with ready partners in accordance with international commitments and standards of transparency.”
He added, while speaking at a conference for the mining sector, that Saudi Arabia’s plans regarding domestic uranium will include “the full cycle of nuclear fuel production that contains yellow cake (uranium used in the manufacture of nuclear fuel), low-enriched uranium, and the production of nuclear fuel for domestic consumption and for export as well, of course.” .
It is noteworthy that the United Arab Emirates has the first multi-unit nuclear power plant in the Arab region. The UAE announced its pledge not to enrich uranium and not to reprocess spent fuel itself.
Nuclear reactors need to enrich uranium with a purity of 5.00 percent, but this same technology can be used to enrich this heavy metal with higher purity levels that may reach the levels required to manufacture nuclear weapons.
This problem was and still is a source of concern for the West and the Middle East region regarding the Iranian program, which prompted the conclusion of the historic nuclear agreement with Tehran in 2015. This agreement stipulated that the purity of uranium enrichment should not exceed 3.67 percent, which guarantees that nuclear weapons will not be developed in Iran.
However, the United States withdrew from this agreement under former US President Donald Trump in 2018. Efforts to revive the historic agreement have also stalled since last September.
The Oversight and Reform Committee within the US House of Representatives (Congress) issued a report on the Saudi nuclear energy program, talking regarding former US President Donald Trump’s intention to allow US companies to supply sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia.
The report, which was issued in 2019, indicated the possibility of a deal between Washington and Riyadh, according to which Saudi Arabia would be granted what it wants nuclear weapons, as part of the comprehensive peace plan.