Apparently mid-January is time of year when world leaders make the rounds in the Gulf countries. After George W. visited the UAE and Saudi this week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has stopped in.

But luckily they didn't have to close down anything for him. Although maybe they would have if he had brought along his lady-friend, former Italian supermodel Carla Bruni.

Anyway, during his visit Sarkozy announced that France is building a naval base in Abu Dhabi in exchange for sharing civilian nuclear technology with the UAE.

Yes, the UAE is getting two EPR nuclear reactors.

Huh.

After this deal Sarkozy went on to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and offered to share civilian nuclear technology with them, too. And they seemed pretty psyched.

Anyone else think that it's a little scary that some of the most oil-rich nations are getting really, really interested in nuclear power?

I mean, Saudi alone is the world's leading exporter of crude oil. They sit on 264.2 billion barrels of proved reserves. The UAE has 97.8 billion barrels and Iraq has 112.5 billion. (Glad it's not the other way around, or I'd be in an occupied territory right now!)

Oddly enough the country with the second largest proven oil reserves in the world is actually in the Western Hemisphere. Their population is only one-tenth of the United States', and their military is pretty weak, too. In fact, the United States has already stolen most of their actors and singers and hockey teams, why not steal all of their heavy oil?

Yes, that's right, I think it's time for the United States to invade Alberta, Canada.

Canada has 178.8 billion barrels in oil rich sand, that, until oil prices skyrocketed in the last few years, weren't really cost-effective. But now that oil's in the ballpark of $100 a barrel, getting one barrel from two tons of sand suddenly doesn't seem so stupid ...

And hey, maybe once they stripmine Fort McMurray, Alberta they can turn it a nuclear waste dump for all of the new Gulf nuclear reactors. Then everyone wins.