Shaw Group Inc., Toshiba Corp. and Exelon Nuclear Partners, a unit of Exelon Corp., will team up to pursue nuclear power contracts in Saudi Arabia as the Kingdom invests to meet energy demand. The group wants to provide engineering, procurement, construction and operations for Saudi nuclear power plants under the terms of the agreement, the companies said on Monday in a statement. Shaw, which has constructed fossil-fuel power plants in Saudi Arabia, called on Toshiba and Exelon Nuclear Partners to form an alliance, according to the Japanese firm. Shaw has a stake in Westinghouse and also handles engineering for AP1000 reactors, while Toshiba has delivered turbines for fossil-fuel power plants to Exelon. Kuwait and France signed a civil nuclear-energy accord in April and the United Arab Emirates awarded a $20 billion contract in December to a group of companies led by Korea Electric Power Corp. to build four nuclear plants. Saudi Arabia's Cabinet gave permission on July 7 for a draft cooperation agreement with France for the development of peaceful uses of nuclear energy, SPA reported. Saudi Arabia said in April it will start a civilian nuclear and renewable energy center to help meet increasing demand for power and to supervise its atomic-energy program. The Kingdom will spend $80 billion to increase its power-generation capacity and transmission network in the next decade as demand rises to 65,000 megawatts in 2018, up from 41,200 megawatts last year. The King Abdullah City for Nuclear and Renewable Energy will be built in Riyadh. The new center will draft a national policy for nuclear power use and supervise the Kingdom's atomic energy and nuclear waste. It will represent Saudi Arabia at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.
