SerpApi.Org
President Trump has signed off on a 30-year nuclear cooperation pact with Saudi Arabia that could put US companies at the center of the kingdom's civilian atomic program, and that could put Congress in a tight spot. The agreement, worth an estimated tens of billions of dollars, gives American firms the lead in building reactors and could eventually see a US-built uranium enrichment facility on Saudi soil, pending a two-year joint study on whether enrichment makes economic sense, per the Wall Street Journal. Westinghouse and its AP1000 reactor design are expected to be major beneficiaries of the agreement.
The deal is framed by the administration as a way to revive the US nuclear industry, cement ties with Riyadh, and block Russia and China from the Saudi market, all while keeping Washington in control of sensitive fuel-cycle steps amid restrictions on enrichment with other partners. Critics counter that allowing any path to enrichment in Saudi Arabia—especially without the International Atomic Energy Agency's "Additional Protocol" inspections—raises proliferation risks and could spur copycat programs in Turkey, Egypt, and elsewhere.
Per the AP, "enrichment isn't an automatic path to a nuclear weapon—a nation also must master other steps, including the use of synchronized high explosives, for instance. But it does open the door to weaponization." The Guardian notes that the move is an eyebrow-raising one, considering that one of the main reasons given by the United States for waging war with Iran is mainly to stop that nation from being able to enrich uranium and build its own nukes.
"The idea that this will have a happy ending is delusional," Henry Sokolski, head of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, says, per the Journal. Lawmakers skeptical of nuclear expansion in the region will have limited leverage: Stopping the accord—which is set to be officially signed on Wednesday by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman—would require a joint resolution and, if vetoed by Trump, a two-thirds override. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
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