Report: Saudi Arabia Wants Uranium-Enrichment Capacity.HT: NationalJournal.
Intelligence officials and issue analysts report signs that Saudi Arabia wants to develop a capacity to enrich uranium, despite proliferation concerns.
Riyadh is understood to be worried that world powers will agree to allow Iran to maintain some limited uranium-enrichment capability in a potential lasting deal on its nuclear program. Saudi Arabia has an established interest in developing an atomic-energy program, but its concerns about Iran could be causing the Persian Gulf kingdom to consider a more expansive domestic nuclear capability, the Daily Beast reported on Friday.
Institute for Science and International Security President David Albright told the news website he had learned from an unidentified European intelligence agency of Saudi Arabia's pursuit in recent years of the scientific and engineering expertise necessary to carry out activities in all parts of the nuclear fuel chain.
The full cycle for producing atomic fuel includes uranium enrichment and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel -- two processes that could be used to create both more fuel for civil energy needs and fissile material suitable for powering warheads.
"They view the developments in Iran very negatively," he said. "They have money, they can buy talent, they can buy training.""The Saudis are thinking through how do you create a deterrent through capability," said Albright, a physicist and onetime weapon inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency.Read the full story here.
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