️🇺🇸🇸🇦 US Energy Secretary Wright says there are no plans to enrich uranium in Saudi Arabia, but the kingdom wants to develop a full value chain for its uranium resources, similar to how it built its oil refining industry.

He says the civil nuclear cooperation agreement between the US and Saudi Arabia is about building a commercial nuclear power industry.

"There are no enrichment plans at all in Saudi Arabia, but it is a country with a larger population that wants to build an industrial economy.

They have uranium resources. They have rare elements, as you have heard, resources. They want to develop mining industries, processing, adding value to the things they extract from underground, similar to the development of a growing oil refining industry.

They don't just export oil, but they export diesel and gasoline and jet fuel. I think they want to do the same in the mining sector. In the cooperation agreement with the US, it is about building a commercial nuclear power industry in Saudi Arabia."