NEW YORK — Saudi Arabia is nearing completion of its first nuclear reactor, satellite images of the facility show, triggering warnings about the risks of the kingdom using the technology without signing up to the international rules governing the industry.
The research facility is in the southwest corner of the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Riyadh, according to images published by GoogleEarth. They’re the first in the public domain to confirm that the program is advancing, showing construction nearing its finish around a columnar vessel that will contain atomic fuel.
The advancement is alarming to arms-control experts because Saudi Arabia has yet to sign up to the international framework of rules other nuclear powers follow to ensure that civilian atomic programs aren’t used to build weapons. Nuclear fuel providers won’t move to supply the unit until new surveillance arrangements have been sealed with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
“There’s a very high probability these images show the country’s first nuclear facility,” said Robert Kelley, a former IAEA director who also led the U.S. Department of Energy’s remote sensing laboratory. “It means that Saudi Arabia has to get its safeguards in order.”
Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said in a statement the facility’s purpose is to ”engage in strictly peaceful scientific, research, educational and training activities in full compliance with international agreements.” The reactor is being built with transparency, and the kingdom has signed all international non-proliferation treaties, the ministry said, adding that the facility is open to visitors.
While Saudi Arabia has been open about its ambitions to acquire a nuclear plant, less is known about the kinds of monitoring the kingdom intends to put in place. More arms-control experts are scrutinizing Saudi Arabia’s nuclear work because of official statements that the kingdom could try to acquire nuclear weapons.
A little over a year ago, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said the kingdom would develop a bomb if it’s regional rival Iran did so. Those statements raised a red flag within the nuclear monitoring community, which is uneasy that it has more ability to access nuclear sites in Iran than it does in Saudi Arabia.
“The much louder debate in Washington is about whether Saudi Arabia acquires nuclear weapons,” said Sharon Squassoni, a researcher and former diplomat on non-proliferation issues at George Washington University.
Focus on the program has increased since Congress opened an investigation into the potentially illegal transfer of sensitive technologies to the kingdom. The U.S. Government Accountability Office joined the probe this week, adding its weight as the federal watchdog assigned to examine work that U.S. companies are seeking to do in Saudi Arabia.
Argentina’s state-owned INVAP sold the unit to Saudi Arabia, which plans to start it later this year. The vessel is about 33 feet tall with a 2.7 meter diameter, matching specifications of other research reactors, according to Kelley, who also used images published by Zamil Industrial Investment Co. to reach his conclusion.
The steel vessel was made in Saudi Arabia. It will contain uranium fuel enriched to a purity well short of levels in weapons.
Saudi Arabia is currently signed up to the IAEA’s so-called Small Quantities Protocol, a set of rules that will become obsolete once it needs atomic fuel. It hasn’t adopted the rules and procedures that would allow nuclear inspectors to access potential sites of interest.
