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Saudi Arabia to extract uranium for 'self-sufficient' nuclear program
Saudi Arabia plans to extract uranium domestically as part of its nuclear power program and sees this as a step towards "self-sufficiency" in producing atomic fuel, a senior official said on Monday.
Extracting its own uranium also makes sense from an economic point of view, said Hashim bin Abdullah Yamani, head of the Saudi government agency tasked with the nuclear plans, the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE).
In a speech at an international nuclear power conference in Abu Dhabi, he did not specify whether Saudi Arabia seeks to also enrich and reprocess uranium – steps in the fuel cycle which are especially sensitive as they can open up the possibility of military uses of the material.
The world's top oil exporter says it wants to tap atomic power for peaceful purposes only in order to diversify its energy supply and will award a construction contract for its first two nuclear reactors by the end of 2018.
Meanwhile, women will be allowed to attend sporting events at stadiums. And here's a message for the skeptics (editorial).
Also at Newsweek.
Previously: Saudi Arabia Will Lift Ban on Women Drivers Next Year
Saudi Arabia Planning $500 Billion Megacity and Business Zone
Robot Granted "Citizenship" in Saudi Arabia, Sparking Backlash
(Score: 4, Interesting) by turgid on Tuesday October 31 2017, @09:17PM (4 children)
Thorium is useless for making nuclear weapons, apparently. The only excuse for using Uranium is to make the isotopes of Plutonium needed for nuclear weapons, so it goes. If Saudi gets nuclear power, using Uranium fuel, then there really is something wrong with the world.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @04:51AM
Scaling up Thorium reactors hasn't been really done yet despite India's investment. Not exactly a straightforward replacement option.
(Score: 3, Informative) by driverless on Wednesday November 01 2017, @08:48AM
Well, in theory you can bread U233 from it, but India hasn't been going too well with that option.
Mind you, this is India we're talking about here...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @11:47AM
1. No, it's not useless.
2. Nations like India would prefer Thorium over Uranium because they have lots of Thorium but no Uranium
3. Almost everyone else prefers Uranium over Thorium because we already have supply chain for Uranium
Everything else is pretty much similar in the two fuels. Already there are reactors that burn either of the fuels or combination thereof. And safety has nothing to do with either fuel - both are equally safe and unsafe.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:42PM
To make Th work you need U or Pu (unless you go with accelerators).
Also U is dirt cheap today and has established supply and distribution (Th lacks this), also U-reactors are easier to make than Th reactors.
And talking about weapons the critical mass of U-233 (which is what creates the energy in Th-reactors) has a critical mass of about 15kg while that of Pu-239 is 10kg (U-235 is about 50kg).
Then we shouldn't neglect to mention that Th-reactors needs reprocessing (or enriched U) while U-reactors doesn't (heck, the CANDU doesn't even need enrichment) so you will basically have to solve all basic problems to get the materials for a bomb just to be able to run it (not hard to begin with)
And why would it matter if they get U-reactors*? If your eally are that freaked about it then lobby for having them send all spent fuel to russia (or get australia to start accepting spent fuel).
Oh, and most countries doesn't do their own reprocessing but pays for the service..
(* = The Pu will get too much Pu-240 in it after some 3GWD/t burnup while power reactors run at about 40-65GWD/t burnup [grossly oversimplified] so you'd notice darn quick if they tried to get weaponsgrade Pu [mainly due to having to refuel every secind ween compared to normal 12-24 months])