LSaudi Arabia detaches itself every day a little more from the orbit of the United States, a historical partner since 1945, to get closer to China. As it plans to join the BRICS club (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) in January 2024, the Wahhabi kingdom is strengthening its trade with the world’s second economic power, and not only in hydrocarbons and petrochemicals . He is studying a proposal from Beijing, according to the wall street journal : the construction of a nuclear power plant, probably a third-generation “Hualong”, in the east of the country. An offer that competes, in particular, with those of the Americans, the French, the Russians and the Koreans.
Riyadh’s objective: to avoid burning black gold in power stations and desalination plants, to reserve it for export and thus finance Vision 2030, the plan of Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Salman (“MBS”) to develop and diversify the Saudi economy. There is also an element of national pride, since Iran and the United Arab Emirates already operate nuclear reactors. The Saudi choice would be of high geopolitical content, and “MBS” is slow to launch its program, which until now provided for 17 gigawatts of installed power, the equivalent of ten EPRs.
Deep pockets
Negotiations are stalling with the Americans, who are very vigilant about the risks of proliferation, even if they made a notable exception with India in 2005. A 1954 law conditions the sale of these technologies to foreign countries on their promise not to not divert them for military purposes. Already confronted with the Iranian question, Washington refuses in particular that Saudi Arabia enriches its uranium, a process that could lead to the manufacture of a bomb. The Chinese are less demanding and are in any case discussing the exploitation of uranium from the Arabian Peninsula.
The issue is also financial. If Riyadh has deep pockets, the cost of its program is estimated at 80 billion dollars (74 billion euros). Are the French (EPR 2 from EDF-Framatome) and American (AP1000 from Westinghouse) sectors competitive in the face of Asian competition? In Paris, we have not forgotten the stinging snub of 2009, when Abu Dhabi opted for Korean reactors.