The Minister of Energy says that the Yellowcake project is part of a strategy to monetize all minerals.
Saudi Arabia plans to begin enriching and selling uranium, according to the Ministry of Energy.
Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud told a conference in Dhahran on Monday that the move was part of a strategy to monetize all minerals, according to Reuters news agency.
“We’re going to enrich it and we’re going to sell it and we’re going to make ‘yellowcake,'” he said, referring to the powdered concentrate used to make uranium fuel for nuclear reactors. It requires safe handling although it poses a small radiation risk.
Saudi Arabia is developing a nascent nuclear program and plans to expand it to uranium enrichment – a sensitive issue because of its potential link to nuclear weapons. Riyadh insists it intends to use nuclear power to diversify its energy mix.
However, it is not clear where Saudi nuclear ambitions might end up.
In 2018, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the kingdom would develop nuclear weapons if regional rival Iran did. Two years later, the State Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom repeated that call.
The kingdom said last year it planned to end surveillance of its own nuclear facilities by the United Nations to oversee the atomic industry and move to regular safeguards by the end of 2024.
Riyadh has yet to operate its first nuclear reactor, allowing its program to continue to be monitored under the Small Quantities Protocol (SQP), an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency that exempts less advanced nations from many reporting and inspection obligations.
Another Gulf state, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is home to the Arab world’s first multi-unit nuclear power plant. The UAE has pledged not to enrich uranium on its own and not to reprocess spent fuel.
Iran is negotiating before Trump’s return
Meanwhile, Iran and European powers said they held “frank and constructive” talks Monday on Tehran’s nuclear program, just a week before United States President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
It was the second round of such talks in less than two months, following a discreet meeting in Geneva last November between Tehran and three European powers, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, known as the E3.
It remains to be seen what Trump’s return to the White House on January 20 will mean for the country’s nuclear program.
During his first term, Trump pursued a “maximum pressure” policy, withdrawing the US from a landmark deal that imposed limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Tehran adhered to the agreement until Washington’s withdrawal, but then began to withdraw its commitments.
