Assessment of Potential Nuclear in selected sites in Saudi Arabia

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia plans to build nuclear reactor as   a part of its vision 2030 that aims to diversify its energy mix.   For this purpose, five cities have been selected in order to   setup nuclear power plant. The country had intended 17 GW of   nuclear capacity by 2040 to cover 15% of the power. The   current study aims at assessing the suitability of the selected   sites to build nuclear reactors based on the seismic,   meteorology, population, hydrology and proximity to sensitive   facilities criteria. In addition, an economic analysis for the   installation of nuclear reactor in the Kingdom has been carried   out in order to evaluate the feasibility of the project. Results   revealed that Jubail city showed suitability to all criteria and it   can be the best site to install nuclear reactor. Also, the Umm   Huwayd and khor Duweihin sites could be appropriate places   since they demonstrate their aptness to all criteria except the   meteorological criteria related to high temperature and high   dust and sandstorm. The economic analysis was carried out by   evaluating the LCOE of different reactor designs in KSA and   the results showed an average of $41/MWh.