RIYADH, (DNA) – HRH Crown Prince Inaugurated and Laid Foundation Stones for Seven Strategic Projects, including Saudi Arabia’s First Nuclear Research Reactor, & Aircraft Fuselage Factory 2 Riyadh

HRH also launched incubators and accelerators located in each of Dammam, Qassim, Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah and Abha, as part of Bader program, which currently heads the Arab Network for ICT Incubators and UN technological cities in the Arab world.

Among the projects which the HRH Crown Prince laid their foundation stones are a desalination plant in the city of Yanbu powered with solar energy, with a capacity of 5200 cubic meters per day.

It is the first industrial application model that uses desalination absorption technology.

The projects also included laying the foundation stone of a low-energy nuclear research reactor, the Kingdom’s first of its kind.

HRH Crown Prince also laid the foundation stone for a center for the development of aircraft fuselage, located, at King Khalid International Airport.

Upon arrival at KACST, HRH the Crown Prince watched a visual presentation of the city’s strategies and objectives aimed at investment and development in researches by coordinating national activities of science, technology and innovation, policies and strategies for researching and developing in the field of innovation and providing support for scientific research and technological development in the Kingdom, in addition to backing up innovation and enhancing local, regional and international cooperation and partnerships for technology transfer and localization.

Following the presentation, HRH Crown Prince inspected the latest developments in aviation and radar projects, affiliating to the National Center for Aviation Technology.

Then, HRH Crown Prince got acquainted with the latest achievements at the Innovation Center for Industry 4, namely the Smart Factory, which includes a number of advanced production and manufacturing departments, virtual reality, information security, IoT, cloud computing, systems integration, simulation, automation, robots, and macro data handling.

HRH Crown Prince was also briefed on satellite projects, including Saudi Sat 5A and Saudi Sat 5B, the second generation of the most accurate remote sensing satellites, in Saudi Arabia.

He also listened to an explanation of the safe national wave of tactical communications systems, the internet national exchange, the fast-speed network for the academic, industrial and health sectors as well as advanced material projects, the carbonic fiber production lab and Aluminum-produced Nano materials (MOF-303), which can absorb water from the atmosphere, at low humidity, making it suitable for dry areas with shallow water resources, and bio-technological projects and energy and water projects.

At the end of the visit, Chairman of the Board of KACST and its President expressed thanks to and appreciation of HRH Crown Prince for his continuous support and attention paid to the city, stressing that this visit and laying the foundation stones for some quality projects, and inaugurating others is a strong support for the city and its employees to continue to work very hard and professionally to contribute to achieve the objectives of the Vision of the Kingdom 2030, by ensuring follow-up and implementation of projects, according to the highest standards, and according to the timetables set for these projects.