Saudi Arabia revealed Monday that work is underway to benefit from uranium through exploration and laying down management mechanisms of uranium projects and production operations in a feasible manner.
The King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE), in cooperation with the Geological Survey of Finland, kicked off in Riyadh on Monday a workshop to review the first phase outcomes of uranium and thorium ore exploration project in the Kingdom as well as the plans for the second phase.
The uranium mining project is one of the components of the Saudi National Atomic Energy Project in the Kingdom. It is expected to increase the local content in the industrial and service value chains, localizing technical know-how in atomic energy technologies and investing them commercially.
KACARE aims to contribute to diversifying the national energy mix to provide the requirements of sustainable national development.
The workshop will review the stages of uranium ore prospecting in the Kingdom, its economic impact, the environmental precautions while carrying out the feasibility study, the system for radiology practices in the uranium prospecting works, and the latest global methods followed in uranium mining, specifying the reserves.
It will also shed light on how to attract investments to carry out the stages of pre-feasibility studies and the special considerations for the infrastructure in terms of location and the necessary facilities during all of the study stages.
Dr. Khalid bin Saleh Al-Sultan, President of KACARE, stated that the current work aims to lay down the mechanisms and uranium production project management methods that are economical, environmentally and socially feasible.
He urged compliance with the recommended global standards, which are endorsed as well by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in this regard.