Will France Help Saudis Go Nuclear?

As the biggest nuclear power user in the world, France is determined to spread its nuclear technology to other wannabe nuclear nations, and collect tens of billions in the process. It all went so wrong for the country last Christmas when it lost a big contract to South Korea in a hotly contested Abu Dhabi bid. Since then it’s restructured its two big energy companies and is forging ahead with plans to be the world’s biggest provider of nuclear energy technology. From the Gulf News…

Riyadh: France is endeavouring to claim a stake in the Saudi nuclear sector to get its share of billions of dollars the six GCC countries are spending on reactors to produce nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. http://www.bigextracash.com/aft/8bbd50bb/aa76d0c4.html
Paris signed two agreements to that effect in 2008 with the UAE and Qatar.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia soon to meet the Saudi leadership, the French embassy said yesterday.
The embassy’s statement said France expected it would sign a number of agreements with Saudi Arabia during the visit, including one about co-operation in the nuclear field.
Sarkozy is expected to visit before the formation of the new French government is announced in October.
A French diplomatic source told Gulf News that the two countries have gone a long way in their negotiations for a nuclear partnership.
The French minister then said that the two countries were about to complete procedures to sign a nuclear co-operation agreement, in line with global guidelines for the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. http://www.bigextracash.com/aft/8bbd50bb/aa76d0c4.html
The kingdom is seeking nuclear energy to power its desalination plants.
An agreement to this effect would enable the kingdom to obtain French nuclear technology. The Saudi government said last year it would sign an agreement with France about the peaceful use of nuclear energy.