The United States and Saudi Arabia have struck a landmark civil nuclear agreement, the US Energy Department said, clearing the way for the kingdom to build reactors with US technology while enriching uranium.
The pact follows years of negotiations that stretched across President Donald Trump’s first administration and the presidency of former president Joe Biden.
Until now, an agreement had remained out of reach, partly because non-proliferation groups warned that such cooperation could give Saudi Arabia a route toward developing a nuclear weapon.
In a departure from the Biden proposal, the new deal does not contain a so-called Additional Protocol permitting the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency to conduct intrusive inspections without advance notice.
When the UAE signed a comparable agreement with the US in 2009, it agreed to renounce both uranium enrichment and nuclear-waste reprocessing.
US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, signed the pact, formally known as a 123 Agreement, along with a bilateral safeguards agreement, the US Energy Department said in a release.
The administration said the agreement also complies with non-proliferation requirements under the US Atomic Energy Act, which rank among the strongest safeguards in the world.
Saudi Arabia has long argued that, without a partnership with Washington, it could turn instead to China or Russia, whose proliferation standards differ from those of the United States.
The agreement, signed by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, permits Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium and reprocess nuclear waste
The Energy Department said the agreement will now be submitted to Congress.
It will take effect unless Congress musters enough votes to reject it within 90 session days. Overcoming a presidential veto, however, would require a two-thirds majority.
Some nuclear-policy experts urged lawmakers to block the pact.
“We urge all members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to recognize the risks and to exercise their power to reject or modify Trump’s proposed nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia so as not to open the door for nuclear proliferation in the Middle East even wider,” said Kelsey Davenport, director for non-proliferation policy at the Arms Control Association.
The roughly 30-year agreement covers the construction of AP1000 reactors and is valued at tens of billions of dollars. It would benefit Westinghouse, jointly owned by Canada-based Cameco CCO.TO and Brookfield Asset Management BAM.N.
An industry source said the agreement calls for a feasibility study examining the use of US technology in Saudi Arabia.
Between that assessment and the lengthy timelines involved in constructing nuclear plants and establishing uranium-enrichment capacity, the necessary infrastructure could take many years to complete.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has repeatedly said the kingdom does not seek to build a nuclear weapon. But he has also said Saudi Arabia would do so if Iran did, fueling proliferation concerns.
Several Democratic lawmakers have warned that the pact could ignite a Middle East arms race as the US-Israeli war on Iran continues.
“They are allowing Saudi Arabia, a belligerent and authoritarian nation, to develop nuclear weapons technologies while starting a war with Iran under the guise of preventing an Iranian nuclear bomb,” said Democratic Senator Edward Markey.
“This deal would make us all less safe.”
Republican Senator Jim Risch said he shares the crown prince’s view that the agreement could deliver benefits to both countries.
