Saudi Arabia wants nuclear power within 10 years

Saudi Arabia plans to be producing nuclear power within 10 years, a senior US trade official said.

"They want to have civil nuclear power as a part of their mix ... relatively soon," said US Under-Secretary of Commerce Francisco Sanchez, after meetings with Saudi officials. The world's largest supplier of oil wants to have nuclear power "within the next 10 years", he said.

Riyadh has begun to move toward nuclear power to replace burning valuable oil and natural gas in power plants. The country signed a co-operation agreement on civil nuclear technology with the United States in 2008, and has held talks with France and Russia in the past year on similar agreements.

In April the country announced it would build the research-and-development focused King Abdullah City for Nuclear and Renewable Energies to underpin its move to diversify energy use away from fossil fuels.

Sanchez was in Riyadh leading a delegation of US businessmen in the infrastructure and energy sectors to meet Saudi counterparts. He said Saudi Arabia's planned spending of some $500-$700bn on infrastructure over 2009-2014 made it an important target for US businesses, especially in the alternative energy sector.

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