Tuesday, 28 July 2026

Saudi Arabia's energy ministry has issued a tender for two 1400 MW pressurized water reactors, and Westinghouse was not asked to bid, Neutron Bytes reported.

The procurement sits inside a much larger buildout plan. Saudi Arabia's stated long term ambition is a fleet of 16 nuclear plants across three sites, according to Neutron Bytes.

China lodged its bid for the Saudi reactor business in August 2023, per the same account.

Saudi officials would rather contract South Korea's Korea Electric Power Corp (Kepco) to build the reactors while drawing on U.S. operational expertise, and would do so without accepting the proliferation controls Washington generally requires, according to the WSJ as cited by Neutron Bytes.

That preference runs into a legal obstacle. The 123 Agreement between South Korea and the U.S. bars South Korea from selling its nuclear reactors or technologies to countries that do not themselves hold 123 Agreements with the U.S., Neutron Bytes reported.

The combination leaves the tender's two reactor units subject to a bilateral nuclear cooperation framework that has not been settled. Any Kepco award would depend on resolving the same proliferation terms Saudi officials have declined to accept.

The U.S. Department of Energy selected Utah, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Idaho as potential host states for Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses, the department announced.

The five contenders emerged from 28 applications submitted by 26 states, according to the Energy Department. States filed their responses by April 1, 2026.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright signed Memorandums of Understanding with each of the five states to continue exploring opportunities to host the campuses, the department said.

Each campus is designed to handle activities spanning the full nuclear fuel lifecycle: fuel fabrication, enrichment, reprocessing of used nuclear fuel, and final disposition of used nuclear fuel. That scope places front-end supply and back-end waste management on a single site rather than splitting them across separate facilities.

The Energy Department put the potential draw of the proposed campuses at up to USD 50 billion in capital investment. Establishing a campus could generate as much as USD 10 billion in state and local tax revenue and create nearly 25,000 jobs, according to the department.