Saudi Quest to Become a Nuclear Player Is Coming Up Short
- Exploration yielded only ‘severely uneconomic’ deposits so far
- Kingdom needs fuel for its planned nuclear power program
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Saudi Arabia’s efforts to break into the ranks of global uranium suppliers — and feed a nascent nuclear power program — are coming up short, with exploration investments failing to find any significant deposits of the heavy metal.
The amount worth developing is smaller than that found in Botswana, Tanzania or the US, according to an assessment published by the Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency. This is the first time the Saudi government submitted data for the biennial Red Book, which is used by geologists prospecting for the commodity that fuels nuclear reactors.