Arab nuclear ambitions embolden spurs nuclear renaissance

The most volatile region in the world is going nuclear.

In the Arab world, at least thirteen nations, both oil-rich and oil-thirsty, are collaborating with world powers to build nuclear energy programmes with unprecedented determination.

As energy and water needs grow, they are confronting the inevitable depletion of oil and natural gas. The nuclear option has trumped renewables as a means to generate electricity while guaranteeing long term security.
While no Arab leader will readily admit that Iran’s nuclear capabilities have spurred, at least in part, their nuclear ambitions, Richard Falk, chair of the board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, says the perceived threat from Iran must be a factor.

“Most of the rationale for these expanded nuclear energy programs is almost always related to domestic factors, increasing electricity demand and the expense of importing energy,” Falk said.

“But now that Iran is at least a latent nuclear weapon state, it doesn’t make any sense [for Arab states] to proceed in [the non-nuclear] direction anymore. It seems they think they need to have their own long-term security in mind,” he said.

Energy experts and international government officials met in Dubai for the GCC’s first Nuclear Summit, a meeting that addressed the justifications, conditions and logistics for developing nuclear power to the Gulf and broader Middle East.

“We are now witnessing a very rapid nuclear renaissance that is driven by energy security and climate change considerations,” Adnan Shihab-Eldin, a nuclear physicist and Opec’s former secretary general said yesterday in a keynote address at the summit. “It does appear at this point in time that the nuclear option is a must for GCC countries.”

With electricity and desalination demands estimated to increase by about 10 per cent annually by 2015, the GCC is in dire need of diversifying their energy sources.

Economig growth and electricity demands have increased dramatically in the UAE, which estimates it would need 40,000MW of electricity to meet domestic demand by 2020.

Huffington Post