Saudi Arabia to enrich and sell uranium

The country has long expressed an interest in developing a nuclear power sector

Saudi Arabia plans to monetise all minerals, including by selling uranium, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman said according to Reuters.

«We will enrich it and we will sell it and we will do a ‘yellowcake’,» Prince Abdulaziz told a conference in Dhahran, referring to a powdered concentrate of the mineral used to prepare uranium fuel for nuclear reactors.

It requires safe handling although it poses few radiation risks.

Saudi Arabia has a nascent nuclear programme that it wants to expand to eventually include uranium enrichment, a sensitive area given its role in nuclear weapons. Riyadh has said it wants to use nuclear power to diversify its energy mix.

Currently, the United Arab Emirates and Iran are the only Middle Eastern countries with operating nuclear power plants, though Egypt and Turkey have plants under construction.

The UAE plans to build a second nuclear power plant, which would double the number of its reactors to eight, but has said it will not enrich uranium.