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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: 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])