Energy minister says yellowcake project is part of strategy to monetise all minerals.
Saudi Arabia plans to begin enriching and selling uranium, according to the Ministry of Energy.
Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud told a conference in Dhahran on Monday that the move is part of a strategy to monetise all minerals, according to Reuters news agency.
“We will enrich it and we will sell it and we will do a ‘yellowcake’,” he said, referring to a powdered concentrate used to prepare uranium fuel for nuclear reactors. It requires safe handling although it poses few radiation risks.
Saudi Arabia is developing a fledgling nuclear programme and has plans to expand it to include uranium enrichment – a sensitive issue due to its potential link to nuclear weapons. Riyadh insists it aims to use nuclear power to diversify its energy mix.
However, it is unclear where Saudi nuclear ambitions might end.
In 2018, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the kingdom would develop nuclear weapons if regional rival Iran did so. Two years later, the kingdom’s minister of state for foreign affairs reiterated that call.
The kingdom said last year it planned to scrap oversight of its nuclear facilities by the United Nations atomic watchdog and switch to regular safeguards by the end of 2024.
Riyadh has yet to fire up its first nuclear reactor, which allows its programme to still be monitored under the Small Quantities Protocol (SQP), an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency that exempts less advanced states from many reporting obligations and inspections.
Fellow Gulf state the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is home to the Arab world’s first multi-unit operating nuclear energy plant. The UAE has pledged not to enrich uranium itself and not to reprocess spent fuel.
Iran talks before Trump’s return
Meanwhile, Iran and European powers said they held “frank and constructive” talks on Monday about Tehran’s nuclear programme, just a week before United States President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
It was the second round of such talks in less than two months, following a discreet meeting in Geneva last November between Tehran and the three European powers, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, known as the E3.
It remains to be seen what Trump’s return to the White House on January 20 will mean for the country’s nuclear programme.
During his first term, Trump pursued a policy of “maximum pressure”, withdrawing the US from a landmark deal which imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. Tehran adhered to the deal until Washington’s withdrawal, but then began rolling back its commitments.
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