Thursday, December 13, 2007

Saudia Arabia Wants To Build Nuclear Power Plants

There are currently no nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia. Ali Saleh al-Barrak, head of Saudi Electricity Company wants to change that. He is pronuclear and wants to reduce the amount of petroleum used to generate electricity in his country. Saudi Arabai has 24 million people and the country uses 2 million barrels of oil per day (compared to 20 million per day in the USA).

Saudi Arabia has capacity to generate 31,000 megawatts of electricity. It is estimated that by 2012 Saudi Arabia will fire nearly 60% of its electricity with oil. According to the U.S. Department of Energy and the International Energy Agency, Saudi Arabia will consume more than a third of its own oil. Right now production stands at 11 million barrels per day. (The Wall Street Journal, DOE-EIA, IEA)

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