Saudi Arabia to launch nuclear power tender in October

• 7 years ago (2017-09-18)
• David Flin

Middle East 326 Nuclear 659

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Saudi Arabia has said that it will launch a tender process for its first nuclear reactors in October, and will reach out to potential vendors from countries including France, South Korea, and China. The Saudi Arabian Government has said that it wants to start construction on two plants with a total capacity of up to 2.8 GW. This will enable it to diversify energy supply for its 32 million population.

An industry source stated that: “Competition will be fierce”. Saudi Arabia is expected to send a Request for Information (RFI) to suppliers in October, marking the official start of the tender process. It will also provide more detail on the plans at the general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria later this month.

A South Korea-based industry source said that Saudi Arabia was expected to issue the RFI for the first two plants to five potential bidders – South Korea, China, France, Russia, and Japan.

The government agency tasked with nuclear plans, the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE) did not respond to requests for comments. In the longer term, KACARE said that Saudi Arabia is said to be considering building 17.6 GW of nuclear capacity by 2032.