US and Saudi Arabia Set to Announce 30-Year Civilian Nuclear Power Deal
- The Trump administration is expected to announce a landmark nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, CBS News reported
- The 30-year deal would allow US companies to operate nuclear power plants on Saudi soil and may include uranium enrichment rights for the kingdom
- Israel, the US's closest Middle East ally, has raised alarms over the agreement's potential implications for nuclear weapons development in the region
The United States and Saudi Arabia are set to announce a landmark agreement that would allow the Gulf kingdom to develop a civilian nuclear energy programme, with US companies playing a central operating role on Saudi soil.
CBS News, the BBC's American partner, reported that the announcement is expected from President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal, which first broke the story, said the agreement would run for 30 years.
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According to BBC, under the terms of the deal, American companies would be permitted to build and operate nuclear power plants within Saudi Arabia for civilian purposes.
Crucially, the arrangement may also grant Saudi Arabia the right to enrich its own uranium for use as reactor fuel, a provision that has drawn immediate scrutiny from security experts and foreign governments.
Israel raises Nuclear weapons concerns
Nuclear experts and former officials in Israel, the United States' closest ally in the Middle East, have voiced serious concern about where the agreement could lead. Their worry centres on the enrichment clause: the same technology used to produce low-enriched fuel for power reactors can, in theory, be adapted to produce weapons-grade material.
The concern is not new. For years, Saudi Arabia has faced questions about its nuclear ambitions, particularly after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in 2018 that the kingdom would pursue its own nuclear weapon if Iran developed one. While the current deal is framed as civilian in nature, critics argue that any enrichment capability within Saudi borders raises the threshold of risk in an already volatile region.
The United States has historically required countries to sign what is known as a "123 agreement" before receiving American nuclear technology, named after Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act. These agreements typically include conditions on enrichment and reprocessing of nuclear material. Whether this deal will include such restrictions, and how tightly they will be enforced, remains a central question ahead of Wednesday's expected announcement.
Saudi Arabia has for years sought to build nuclear power capacity as part of a broader effort to diversify its energy mix and reduce domestic reliance on oil, freeing up more crude for export. The kingdom has been in discussions with multiple countries, including Russia and South Korea, about its nuclear ambitions.
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Uranium-rich Niger struggles despite nuclear resurgence
Legit.ng earlier reported that Prospects for the world's nuclear industry have been boosted by the war in Ukraine and mounting hostility towards climate-wrecking fossil fuels -- but Niger, one of the world's biggest sources of uranium, has yet to feel the improvement.
The deeply impoverished landlocked Sahel state is a major supplier of uranium to the European Union, accounting for a fifth of its supplies, and is especially important to France, its former colonial power. But its mining industry is in the doldrums.
Source: Legit.ng
