A Kuwaiti lawmaker has questioned plans by the Gulf state to build four atomic power plants.
In questions sent to Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al Mohammed al Sabah and distrubuted to reporters today, Yousef al Zalzalah said: “What party decided Kuwait needs four nuclear reactors and has it conducted studies on that?”
He also asked why Kuwait’s National Nuclear Energy Committee chose France to help it build the reactors.
The four facilities are to be built by 2022, Ahmad Bishara, secretary general of the National Nuclear Committee, said in a Sept 10 interview.
By January, the committee will issue a plan for nuclear development that will include a timetable for bids and potential locations for the plants, Bishara said.
Kuwait, the fifth biggest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is seeking to increase power production because the government wants to boost manufacturing, develop new industries such as tourism and meet demand from expanding residential developments.
In April, the government signed a nuclear cooperation treaty with France, which may allow Areva, the world’s biggest maker of atomic reactors, to export nuclear technology to the country.
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