Saudi Arabia To Start Building Nuclear Power Plants ‘Very Soon’

Saudi Arabia could start building nuclear plants within 12 months, the country’s energy minister told an oil conference.

“We will be selecting sites very soon that we will reserve for our first nuclear energy power plant,” Khalid Al-Falih, the country’s energy minister, said at the Oil and Money conference in London Wednesday. “We hope within the next 12 months that we will be announcing concrete plans.”

Al-Falih claims that nuclear energy, along with wind and solar power will play a “very significant part” of Saudi Arabia’s energy mix.



Russia and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement last year to work together on “peaceful” nuclear energy projects. The stated purpose of these reactors is to generate electricity, power desalination plants and reduce domestic oil consumption so Saudi Arabia can sell the oil abroad.

Saudi Arabia plans to build 16 nuclear power plants from Russia for $100 billion despite terrorism concerns, according to a Monday announcement from a government-controlled nuclear power company. The reactors will be built by the Russian government controlled Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Cooperation.