The energy minister of Saudi Arabia announced on Monday that the country has plans to make “yellowcake,” a uranium concentrate used as nuclear power plant fuel, and sell enriched uranium to the world.
“We will enrich it and we will sell it and we will do a ‘yellowcake,’” Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman declared, speaking to an energy conference in the country, according to the Saudi news outlet Al Arabiya.
Saudi officials have openly discussed the possibility of developing a nuclear program – both for peaceful and military reasons – for over a decade. While they have limited themselves to suggesting they would develop nuclear weapons only in the event that rival Iran announces it has successfully built its own bomb, peaceful nuclear energy development has become a recurring theme in public conversations on diversifying Saudi Arabia’s oil-dependent economy.
Chatter regarding the Saudis developing their own nuclear program, including building nuclear power plants, increased following the implementation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’ “Vision 2030” program, intended to protect the Saudi economy by moving beyond oil dependence. Perhaps the most sensational “Vision 2030” project, the to-be-built “green” megacity “Neom,” will allegedly only run on green energy, potentially requiring its own nuclear facilities.
The energy minister’s comments on Monday were reportedly part of an address on Saudi Arabia’s minerals industry, not necessarily its own nuclear development. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman emphasized that uranium was one of several minerals naturally occurring in the country that Riyadh hoped to exploit and sell to insulate the economy from the whims of oil markets. Al Jazeera, citing Reuters, reported that the minister emphasized the country would “monetize all minerals.”
The Saudi government first announced nuclear ambitions in a 2010 decree, the World Nuclear Association narrates in its profile of the country.
“The development of atomic energy is essential to meet the Kingdom’s growing requirements for energy to generate electricity, produce desalinated water and reduce reliance on depleting hydrocarbon resources,” the decree read. Two years later, Riyadh adopted renewable energy goals that included nuclear development, but they moved slowly before the implementation of “Vision 2030” in 2016, and before Mohammed bin Salman became crown prince and implemented a dramatic purge of rival princes a year later.
In 2017, as Mohammed bin Salman cemented his control of the government, the Saudi government announced that it would begin pursuing “self-sufficiency in producing nuclear fuel” by developing its uranium industry.
“Regarding the production of uranium in the kingdom, this is a program which is our first step towards self-sufficiency in producing nuclear fuel,” nuclear energy chief Hashim bin Abdullah Yamani said at the time. Yamani omitted mention of enriching uranium at the time, discussing only producing uranium at home. As most uranium on earth is naturally stable, the element must be “enriched” to separate the radioactive isotope uranium-235 from the majority uranium-238.
The 2017 report coincided with separate reporting from Reuters that Saudi Arabia was seeking meetings with global nuclear energy corporations to seek information on building its own reactors.
As reports of Riyadh pursuing peaceful nuclear energy increased, so did suggestions from senior officials the country had never ruled out building a nuclear weapon. The crown prince himself insisted in 2018, discussing the threat of neighboring Iran, that “without a doubt” he would greenlight nuclear weapons development if necessary.
“Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible,” bin Salman said, comparing Iranian leaders to Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler.
“It’s definitely an option,” then-Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said in 2020, referring to nuclear weapons. “Saudi Arabia has made it very clear, that it will do everything it can to protect its people and to protect its territories.”
Nuclear weapons discussions quelled as Saudi Arabia and Iran normalized relations in March 2023, a deal brokered by communist China that preceded invitations to both countries to join the anti-American BRICS coalition. Iran accepted the invitation, while Riyadh refused to categorically accept or reject it, leaving its status in limbo. In the absence of overt threats from Iran, the focus returned to peaceful nuclear development.
Multiple reports throughout 2023 and 2024, all citing anonymous officials, indicated that Saudi officials were attempting to convince the administration of outgoing American President Joe Biden – with which it maintained an especially acrimonious relationship – to help them develop nuclear energy facilities. The Wall Street Journal, which notoriously tends to rely on anonymous rumors for its international reports, suggested in September 2023 that “Israeli officials are quietly working with the Biden administration on a polarizing proposal to set up a U.S.-run uranium-enrichment operation in Saudi Arabia.”
That deal never happened and the Hamas atrocities against Israel a month later almost single-handedly halted any momentum towards normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia. A year later, however, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia was still pressuring Washington to help it build nuclear energy facilities as part of a proposed “security deal” with a “civil nuclear component.”
“The senior official said on Tuesday that the deal would include U.S. civilian nuclear cooperation for the Saudis structured by nonproliferation experts in a ‘rigorous way,’” Reuters reported.
The Saudi security deal with the Biden administration has not materialized at press time. Biden is set to vacate the White House on Monday, when President-elect Donald Trump will return to the presidency.
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