Last week, the government of Saudi Arabia announced that it would go ahead with its nuclear energy ambitions and invest more than $100bn in building 16 nuclear reactors over the next two decades. At a time when other countries like Japan or Germany are looking for exit strategies from nuclear energy production, Saudi Arabia and its rich GCC neighbors, as reported by Green Prophet, continue to push on with their nuclear program.
Given that most are seven to ten years away from actual power generation, GCC governments view nuclear power as a way to reduce domestic oil and gas consumption. According official sources from Saudi Arabia, the new planned reactors will cover 20 per cent of its electricity needs, as demand in power grows at an estimated 8 per cent during the next ten years.
One may argue that these countries do not seem alarmed by the Fukushima disaster as they perceive that the risks of tsunami or earthquakes in the GCC are low, that the technology has evolved, and/or that proliferation unlikely. However, even if these risks and dangers are minimized, not much has been declared about plans to dispose of toxic nuclear waste.
South African architects chose mud as the main building material for an $8.36 million Islamic Research Institute project in Timbuktu.
The international aid and development organization