Satellite images show construction of Saudi nuclear reactor is progressing rapidly

[Aspen]

Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead to complete its first nuclear reactor, according to satellite images that have raised concern among arms-control experts because the kingdom has yet to implement international monitoring rules.

Satellite photos show the kingdom has built a roof over the facility before putting in place International Atomic Energy Agency regulations that allow inspectors early verification of the reactor's design. Foregoing on-the-ground monitoring until after the research reactor is completed would be an unusual move normally discouraged under regulations to ensure civilian atomic programs aren't used to make weapons.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly pledged that its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes, but Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman also said the kingdom would develop a bomb if its regional rival Iran did so. Those statements made in 2018 raised a red flag within the nuclear monitoring community which is uneasy that it has more ability to access nuclear sites in Iran than it does in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's ministry of energy didn't respond to a request to comment.

While Saudi Arabia has been open about its ambitions to generate nuclear power, less is known about the kinds of monitoring the kingdom intends to put in place. President Donald Trump's administration sent a letter to Saudi Arabia last year setting requirements to access U.S. atomic technology. The baseline for any agreement is tougher IAEA inspections.

"Saudi Arabia is aware of what their obligations are," IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Feb. 5 in Washington after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Grossi dismissed Saudi suggestions that it would acquire nuclear weapons if Iran did.

The situation hasn't changed since Grossi spoke, an IAEA spokesperson said by email, adding that other countries have completed the transition to stricter monitoring after scaling up nuclear programs.

IAEA inspectors who account for gram-levels of uranium worldwide verify the designs of facilities to ensure that nuclear material is contained within and can't be smuggled out via trap doors or hidden tunnels, said Robert Kelley, a former IAEA director who led inspections in Iraq, Libya and South Africa.

"They're going to have to work with the IAEA forever if they want to move toward nuclear power and this would be the time to establish that relationship," Kelley, a nuclear engineer, said of Saudi Arabia.

At issue is the weak and outdated set of IAEA safeguard rules, called the "Small Quantities Protocol," or SQP, that Saudi Arabia continues to follow, according to Laura Rockwood, the IAEA's former chief lawyer who drafted stricter inspection guidelines to which the vast majority of countries adhere.

"The problem is that design-information verification has to be carried out while it's being constructed," said Rockwood, who now directs the Open Nuclear Network in Vienna.

Satellite images show that a thick lattice of roof beams is now covering the 10-meter (33 feet) high steel reactor vessel. Argentina's state-owned INVAP SE sold the low-powered research reactor to Saudi Arabia.

While Saudi Arabia adheres to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the bedrock agreement that regulates the spread of material needed to induce fission, it still has to implement monitoring rules in line with its nuclear program development.

"Saudi Arabia's agreement right now is completely minimal, out of date, and unequal to the task of providing the kind of transparency that the IAEA and other member states need about Saudi Arabia's nuclear program," said Sharon Squassoni, a researcher and former diplomat on non-proliferation issues at George Washington University.

https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/...udi-nuclear-reactor-push-200521155658787.html

 

[Fawadqasim1]

It's a small research reactor

 

[The SC]

It's a small research reactor

Even that is too big, too much and too dangerous for the IAEA..

 

[Fawadqasim1]

Even that is too big, too much and too dangerous for the IAEA..

Absolutely

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

Time to repost my old post.



Uranium and heavy metals in Phosphate Fertilizers

From book Uranium, Mining and Hydrogeology (pp.193-198)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226094606_Uranium_and_heavy_metals_in_Phosphate_Fertilizers

Saudis to Prospect for Uranium, Thorium with China – over US Objections
Mar 14, 2019 @ 19:34 DEBKA Weekly


Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead with a geological survey to explore and assess its uranium and thorium resources in the kingdom’s western Hail Province, in the face of US objections. Although this largely agricultural region was always thought to hold small supplies of these substances, Riyadh suddenly perked up of late to its potential after Chinese geologists turned up promising finds.

Hail produces large quantities of dates and fruit and most of the kingdom’s wheat and grain. It has historically derived its wealth as a wayside station on the camel caravan Hajj route to Mecca.

Most of the world’s uranium is found either in northern countries like Canada or Russia or the south in places like South Africa and southern Australia. Jordan is thought to have substantial reserves, up to 65,000 tons of uranium plus the potential to extract 140,000 tonnes from phosphates. Foreign firms have been given mining contracts.

However, DEBKA Weekly’s sources report that Chinese geologists hired by the Saudi government reported that Jordan’s uranium deposits extend south as far as Saudi Arabia’s Hail. Riyadh’s eagerness to co-opt Beijing to the start of its uranium mining project has raised suspicions, especially in Washington, that Saudi Arabia is secretly conducting a nuclear program a lot bigger than suggested by intelligence findings.
The project is going forward as a partnership between the King Abdullah City for Atomic Research and Renewable Energy (KACARE) and China’s National Nuclear Cooperation (CNNC) for the stated aim of “exploring uranium and thorium deposits for peaceful use.”

Last October, the KACARE president Hashim bin Abdullah Yamani said his agency was tasked with “nuclear plans” and proposed to “extract uranium domestically as part of its nuclear program” and a step towards “self-sufficiency in the production of atomic fuel.”

Five months ago, Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman laid the cornerstone for the kingdom’s first nuclear research reactor. This posed a question: Why does the nation with the world’s largest reserves of oil need nuclear reactors for power? It also raised the suspicion that the Saudis wanted a possible infrastructure for manufacturing plutonium from the nuclear fuel produced by this research reactor.

In past negotiations with the Obama administration, the Saudis firmly refused to relinquish their right to enrich uranium for use as nuclear fuel for their power reactors project. The Trump administration, in contrast, is prepared to countenance uranium enrichment in Saudi Arabia under restrictions, despite strong objections in both houses of congress. Antagonism to Saudi Arabia among US lawmakers remains high over the suspicion that the crown prince engineered the death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year.

Although Riyadh replies that putting nuclear energy to civilian use will free up more of its oil for export, no one doubts that its overriding motivation is in the realm of “security.” The Saudis deeply resent lagging behind Iran’s nuclear efforts and watch with covetous and suspicious eyes the rapid nuclear advances achieved by their ally, the United Arab Emirates. In 2018, the UAE completed the construction of its first civilian nuclear plant. In an agreement with the United States the UAE signed a commitment not to use the reactor for uranium enrichment in return for which it was granted international assistance. The Saudis refuse to undertake this commitment, maintaining that since Iran is allowed to enrich uranium, they too have this right.

Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, on Wednesday, March 13, accused regional powers of “spending their petrodollars on suspicious nuclear projects” that could endanger security in the region and the world. He did not name those powers. Those new threats, Shamkhani said, would force Iran to revise its strategy depending on their nature and geography and the needs of “our country and armed forces.” Last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused the United States of hypocrisy for trying to wreck Iran’s nuclear program while seeking to sell nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, Tehran’s regional rival. The Saudi government has so far, with unusual stubbornness, refused to turn over to Washington any information on the nuclear program it is running out of King Abdullah City, or explain what Chinese engineers and technicians are doing there. Therefore, the decision to prospect for uranium and thorium in the Hail province has widened the differences between Riyadh and Washington on the nuclear issue. In an effort to bridge the gap, the US was last week reported to be “encouraging Saudi Arabia to consider bids by American companies to build nuclear reactors.” Washington hopes that if US companies like Westinghouse win those contracts, the administration will have access to a much clear picture on what is going on inside the Saudi nuclear program.

https://www.debka.com/saudis-to-prospect-for-uranium-thorium-with-china-over-us-objections/

Saudi Arabia's first nuclear reactor nearly finished, sparking fears over safeguards

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...early-finished-sparking-fears-over-safeguards

KACARE launches uranium program to train Saudis

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1464706/saudi-arabia

Saudi Arabia owns 5% of global uranium reserves

https://english.mubasher.info/news/3251245/Saudi-Arabia-owns-5-of-global-uranium-reserves

As Saudi Arabia Builds A Nuclear Reactor, Some Worry About Its Motives


Bomb Watchers Twitching as Looser Rules Weighed for Uranium

Countries encouraged to look at extraction from phosphates, providing potential new pathways to the nuclear material used in reactors and weapons

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...xpand-phosphate-link-to-weapons-proliferation

Wa’ad El-Shamal: The capital of global phosphate

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/article/551114

Wa’ad Al Shamal pivotal in development of KSA’s vast phosphate reserves

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/arti...elopment-of-KSAsvast-phosphate-reserves?rss=1


Saudi crown prince warns it will build nuclear bomb if Tehran does the same
Prince Mohammed bin Salman is pressing the US to allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium in return for choosing American nuclear technology

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-iran-nuclear-bomb-threat-mohammed-bin-salman

Saudi missile program expanded with help from China, US intel said to show
Trump administration reportedly withheld information from Congress, raising concern it is tacitly approving move; fears raised Riyadh could be seeking nuclear weapons

https://www.timesofisrael.com/saudi...d-with-help-from-china-us-intel-said-to-show/

Exclusive: US intel shows Saudi Arabia escalated its missile program with help from China

Pakistan

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/05/...udi-arabia-ballistic-missile-china/index.html

Saudi Arabia, China have established ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1534636/saudi-arabia

Saudi Space Agency Begins To Take Shape, Reported $1 Billion Budget In First Year

https://spacewatch.global/2019/04/s...hape-reported-1-billion-budget-in-first-year/

Connect the dots.

KSA should definitely go nuclear if that has not occurred already de facto. The world is a jungle and why should KSA not do it when others are doing it? What moral authority do nuclear powers have to tell non-nuclear powers to not follow in their own footsteps? To hell with that logic. They (world) already prevented many Arab nations in the past, this time we must succeed.

We Arabs are the second largest ethnic group on the planet after the Han Chinese inhabiting a landmass the size of Russia on two continents from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean. Our lands are some of the richest and most strategic on the planet and our lands are home to the oldest known civilizations and cities on the planet. We were an imperial power for millennia and one of the most powerful parts of the world at times THE most powerful. Why should tiny nations such as Israel, the UK, France etc. (in comparison) be nuclear armed and not the Arabs? Out of principle I support every Arab country pursuing nuclear weapons.

The Arab League instead of wasting their time should make a joint declaration of wanting to pursue nuclear technology and weapons and work jointly together in this regard. So many monkeys around wanting to destroy us. Casus belli is well overdue.

Even that is too big, too much and too dangerous for the IAEA..

Actually I say screw the IAEA. I am happy that KSA did not sign what outsiders were pressuring the leadership to sign (you know what I am referring to) lead by the US.

It is a question of time of when and not if. Nuclear tech is old tech as well.

This Azeri guy is often bullshitting but he is right about this one:

 

[Trench Broom]

It's unfortunate but no one is going to protect Saudi from Iran, so Saudi have to protect themselves.

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

It's unfortunate but no one is going to protect Saudi from Iran, so Saudi have to protect themselves.

Iran is not a conventional military threat for KSA. They don't have the ability to invade KSA or pose an existential threat to KSA, unless they acquire nuclear weapons. No regional actor is. So the key thing here are nuclear weapons.
I see great prospects of a successful Arab-Israeli cooperation (objectively speaking this cannot be argued against in terms of potential if everyone buried their hatches) once the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is solved and an acceptable solution for both parties is found, as complicated as such an endeavor might be and has proven to be for well-known reasons.
Arabs and Jews, in particular Jews originally from the Arab world (2/3's of all Israeli Jews) who are genetically basically identical to their Muslim, Christian, Atheist etc. counterparts in Arab country x and y, share a ton in common.
Whether we like it or not, Arabs and Jews are neighbors who share a close ancient history. There have been very good periods of interaction/cooperation and very bad ones, mostly in recent times. However the geography remains the same and none of us are going anywhere.
So while the Israeli deep state might try to combat (as in the past) Arabs from acquiring nuclear weapons, long-term it is a futile endeavor (as explained in that video that I posted), no Arab state would ever use a nuclear bomb on Israel or vice versa unless some armageddon emerges.
Arabs will be forced to follow suit if regional actors do it. It is a natural reaction.

In an ideal world nobody would have nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction and everyone would live in peace and harmony but that is not happening anytime soon unless the human race evolves to a degree where this becomes unnecessary.