Saudi Arabia's energy minister announced Monday that the country plans to produce “yellowcake” uranium concentrate, which is used to fuel nuclear power plants, and sell enriched uranium around the world.
“We will enrich it, we will sell it, we will 'yellowcake' it,” Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman declared at the country's energy conference, according to Saudi media. al arabiya.
For more than a decade, Saudi officials have publicly discussed a possible nuclear program for both peaceful and military reasons. They limit themselves to suggesting they will develop nuclear weapons only if rival Iran announces it has successfully built its own bomb, but in public conversations about diversifying Saudi Arabia's oil-dependent economy , peaceful nuclear development has been a recurring theme.
Following the implementation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 plan, which aims to protect the Saudi economy from dependence on oil, Saudi Arabia has launched its own nuclear program, including the construction of nuclear power plants. There was more chatter about what we were developing. Perhaps the most sensational Vision 2030 project, the planned “green” megacity Neom is said to run solely on green energy and may require its own nuclear facility.
The energy minister's comments on Monday were reportedly part of a speech about Saudi Arabia's mineral industry and not necessarily about the country's nuclear program. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said uranium is one of several naturally occurring minerals in the country that Riyadh wants to develop and sell to protect its economy from the vagaries of the oil market. emphasized. Al Jazeera quoted Reuters, reported The minister stressed that the country will “monetize all minerals.”
The Saudi government first announced its nuclear ambitions in a 2010 decree of the World Nuclear Association. talk Listed in country profile.
“The development of nuclear power is essential to meet Saudi Arabia's growing energy needs for electricity generation, desalinated water production, and reducing dependence on depleting hydrocarbon resources,” the decree says. . Two years later, Riyadh adopted renewable energy targets, including nuclear development, but before the implementation of Vision 2030 in 2016 and a year later, when Mohammed bin Salman became crown prince and initiated a dramatic purge of rival princes. That goal progressed slowly before implementation.
In 2017, as Mohammed bin Salman tightened his grip on the government, the Saudi government announced it would begin pursuing “self-sufficiency in nuclear fuel production” by developing a uranium industry.
“With regard to uranium production in Saudi Arabia, this is a program that is the first step towards self-sufficiency in nuclear fuel production,” Atomic Energy Secretary Hashim bin Abdullah Yamani said at the time. At the time, Yamani omitted any mention of uranium enrichment and only discussed uranium production in his country. Most of the uranium on Earth is naturally stable, so separating the radioactive isotope uranium-235 from most uranium-238 requires “enriching” the element.
The 2017 report came at the same time as another Reuters report that Saudi Arabia was seeking a meeting with global nuclear energy companies to seek information about building its own nuclear reactors.
As reports of Riyadh's pursuit of peaceful nuclear energy increased, so too did senior officials suggesting that the country had never ruled out building nuclear weapons. The crown prince himself discussed the threat posed by neighboring Iran in 2018, claiming he would “absolutely” give the green light to developing nuclear weapons if necessary.
“Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but if Iran develops a nuclear bomb, we will undoubtedly follow suit as soon as possible,” Bin Salman said of Iranian leaders. He compared it to Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany.
“It is definitely an option,” then-Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said in 2020, referring to nuclear weapons. “Saudi Arabia has made it clear that it will do everything possible to protect its people and territory.”
Once Saudi Arabia and Iran normalized relations in March 2023, the debate over nuclear weapons subsided. The agreement was brokered by Communist China and came ahead of calls for both countries to join the anti-American BRICS coalition. Iran accepted the invitation, but Riyadh flatly refused to accept or reject, leaving its status in limbo. In the absence of an overt threat from Iran, the focus returned to peaceful nuclear development.
There have been multiple reports from 2023 to 2024, all citing unnamed officials, that Saudi officials are demanding that the outgoing US President Joe Biden's administration (with whom he had a particularly rocky relationship) take control of nuclear facilities. It was shown that they were trying to persuade them to support the development. of wall street journalThe newspaper, notorious for relying on anonymous rumors in its international reporting, reported in September 2023 that “Israeli officials say the Biden administration is gearing up for a polarizing proposal to start a U.S.-led uranium enrichment project in Saudi Arabia.” “We are secretly cooperating with them,” he said.
This agreement did not materialize, and Hamas's atrocities against Israel a month later almost single-handedly halted the momentum toward normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia. But a year later, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia was still pressuring the US government to help build nuclear facilities as part of a proposed “security agreement” with a “civil nuclear element.”
Reuters reported that “a senior official said on Tuesday that the deal includes U.S. civil nuclear cooperation with Saudi Arabia that will be structured in a 'rigorous manner' by nonproliferation experts.”
A Saudi security agreement with the Biden administration has not yet materialized at the time of writing. Biden is scheduled to vacate the White House on Monday, with President-elect Donald Trump set to return to office.
