Saudi Arabia’s nuclear energy program has been a subject of intense speculation recently, especially since the establishment of the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA-CARE) by Royal Order No. A/90 in 2010.
In 2012, the government announced a new planned energy mix, including 12 nuclear reactors. This created a lot of interest from and aggressive competition among international energy companies that wanted to take part in the reactors’ development. These companies opened offices in the Kingdom and recruited locally to establish teams that could tender for this ambitious project. KA-CARE was clear that localization was a prerequisite for vendor selection.