Saudi greenlights KSA-US energy partnership: The Saudi Arabian cabinet has approved the long-awaited “Partnership Framework for Clean Energy Development” between the United States and KSA, the Saudi Gazette reports. The agreement is based on a 2017 MoU (pdf) between the Kingdom’s Energy Ministry and the US Department of Energy agreeing to collaborate in renewable energy projects including carbon capture utilization and storage with follow-up agreements signed in July of last year.

The details: The extensive new agreement (pdf) is made up of six sections including the implementation of a circular carbon economy to support the Paris Agreement goals, increasing the efficiency of electric power systems, streamlining energy storage systems, fuel life cycles to reduce emissions, and supporting the uptake of clean hydrogen.

Nuclear is on the menu: The agreement stipulates the two countries can share knowledge on reactor technologies, uranium exploration (mining and processing), and the safe disposal of nuclear waste. Saudi Arabia has been making the case for setting up a nuclear power industry for domestic use and export, and showcased the country’s diverse and abundant supplies of uranium during the Future Minerals Forum last week.

This partnership has been a long time coming: US-Saudi talks over nuclear cooperation began as early as 2008 but were delayed because of disagreements over nonproliferation requirements, the US Government Accountability Office reported in 2020. In 2009, the Saudi government stated that “atomic energy is essential” to enable the Kingdom to fulfill its electricity and desalination needs as well as diversifying its economy away from hydrocarbons, the World Nuclear Association reported last April.

What’s next? The country is targeting 17 GW of nuclear capacity by 2040 and bringing online two reactors with a combined capacity of 3.2 GW within the coming decade while adhering to international standards of transparency, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said last week, adding that contracts for building reactors will be awarded “very soon.”