The Cooling towers of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station near Enerhodar, Ukraine, circa July 2026. The warzone experience of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station has lessons for Saudi Arabia’s nuclear energy ambitions, writes Timothy Roxey. (Shutterstock/Ihor Bondarenko)

Can Saudi Arabia Design Nuclear Power Plants That Can Withstand War?

Share this link on Facebook

Share this page on X (Twitter)

Share this link on LinkedIn

Share this page on Reddit

Email a link to this page

If Saudi Arabia wants nuclear power, it must meet safety requirements suited to a volatile region.

A recent set of drone attacks on September 10 and 11 struck pumping stations along Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline. With the Strait of Hormuz closed, Saudi oil relied on that pipeline as its main route to market. Although most of the pipeline is buried, the drones launched from Iraq hit the portion exposed on the surface that performs the necessary pumping and control for the oil flowing underground. Consequently, Saudi Arabia shut down the pipeline.

Earlier, on May 17, a drone launched from Iraq struck an electrical generator outside the inner perimeter of the United Arab Emirates’ Barakah nuclear power station. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that one of Barakah’s four units stayed running on emergency diesel generators after the attack and that radiation levels remained normal. The lesson is that an attacker doesn’t have to breach a strengthened containment structure to push........

© The National Interest