US firms invited to bid for Saudi nuclear plants

Saudi Arabia has invited U.S. firms to take part in developing its civilian nuclear power program, Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said yesterday, adding the kingdom was not interested in diverting nuclear technology to military use.

Reuters has reported that Westinghouse is in talks with other U.S.-based companies to form a consortium for a multi-billion-dollar project to build two reactors and that those firms are pushing Washington to restart talks with Riyadh on a civil nuclear cooperation pact. Falih said Saudi Arabia was committed to restricting nuclear technology to civilian use. "Not only are we not interested in any way to diverting nuclear technology to military use, we are very active in non-proliferation by others," he said at a joint news conference with U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry.

KACARE, the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, is the Saudi government agency tasked with the nuclear plans. It said last month on its website that it was in talks with Toshiba-owned Westinghouse and France's EDF. "We hope that the two paths will converge - the commercial, technical discussions between KACARE and the American companies, while we work with our counterparts on the American side to address the regulatory and policy issues," Falih said. Perry, who is on his first official visit to Saudi Arabia and will go on to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar this week, said it was "a bit premature" to comment on the negotiations.