(by Roberta PREZIOSA) A statement from Rosatom, the regulatory body of the Russian nuclear complex, reported that Maher Abdallah Alodan, director of the Saudi "King Abdullah" Research Center for Atomic Energy, and Renewable Energy, and Evgenij Pakermanov, president of the company Rusatom Overseas (subsidiary of the Rosatom group), responsible for the promotion of Russian nuclear power in foreign markets, have signed a road map on cooperation for the peaceful exploitation of nuclear energy.
The road map includes a series of steps necessary for the implementation of the cooperation program on the peaceful development of nuclear energy, signed on 5 October last, in Moscow, as part of the historic visit of Saudi King Salman.
Moscow and Riyadh, in accordance with the program, will cooperate in the areas of low and medium power reactors that can be used for energy production and for seawater desalination.
The parties also plan to work together in the field of staff training for the national nuclear program.
This initiative is part of the strategic program of the Saudi Minister of Defense, called Vision 2030, which attempts to give Saudi Arabia the ability to diversify the economic sources of the country, now linked only to the export of oil.
From a political point of view, both the United States and Russia have the technology for producing nuclear reactor energy, but the diversification of technology supplies gives Saudi policy more flexibility in case one of the two sources were to find political obstacles in terms of export.
It is an intelligent policy from a geopolitical and certainly far-sighted point of view.