RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is serious about developing civil nuclear energy within 10 years, which creates good opportunities for US companies, a US government official said. "They seem to be very committed to having civil nuclear as part of what generates energy for them and to do it relatively quickly, like within the next 10 years," US Undersecretary of Commerce Francisco Sanchez told reporters late Monday. 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 $500-700 billion on infrastructure over 2009-2014 made it an important target for US businesses, especially in the alternative energy sector. The Kingdom signed a cooperation 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. Fast-growing power demand is forcing the world's largest oil exporter to look at all sources of energy. The Kingdom will need 40 gigawatts (GW) of base load power by 2030, which could be met by nuclear plants, a government official said in October. Sanchez spoke after meeting officials at the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, along with a US business delegation including firms active in civil nuclear energy such as The Shaw Group Inc. The Kingdom has unveiled plans to develop nuclear energy to meet rising power demand, but no concrete progress has surfaced yet. Demand for electricity in the desert country is rising at an annual rate of 8 percent and is expected to triple to 121,000 megawatts by 2032. Sanchez said he saw "wonderful opportunities" for US companies active in civil nuclear energy, despite Saudi Arabia's talks with other countries such as France and Russia on signing potential nuclear agreements. "The Saudis know that Americans bring very, very good technology, and I think this is especially true in the civil nuclear space," he said."We have more operating nuclear reactors than any other country in the world.”
