nuclear-news

A congressional watchdog has agreed to investigate the Trump administration’s discussions about sharing nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia, according to people familiar with the matter. The Government Accountability Office, a non-partisan agency that conducts investigations on behalf of Congress, is in talks with lawmakers over the scope of a probe into the nuclear power talks that the Trump administration has held with Saudi Arabia. One person familiar with the discussions between the GAO and lawmakers said they were in their “initial phase”. In February, lawmakers accused White House officials of pushing a plan to sell US nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia in potential defiance of legal restrictions. A report prepared for the oversight committee of the Democratic-led House of Representatives said Trump aides were attempting “to rush the transfer of highly sensitive US nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia”, which may have violated the Atomic Energy Act.

The US and Saudi Arabia do not have a nuclear co-operation agreement under section 123 of the act — which governs civil nuclear agreements — but the two countries have been in the process of negotiating one since 2012. The GAO is responding to a recent request from Marco Rubio, a senior Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the panel. In making their request, Mr Rubio and Mr Menendez said they were concerned about reports that the administration had been negotiating a nuclear co-operation deal — a so-called 123 agreement — with Riyadh without keeping Congress apprised of the situation. The two senators added that they were “especially concerned that negotiations or discussions of nuclear co-operation are happening in a very opaque manner”.

According to the state department, it is the lead negotiator for all international civil nuclear co-operation agreements. Under section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act, any talks are to be led by the secretary of state and with “technical assistance” from the energy secretary. Senators Menendez and Rubio said they believed the energy department was leading the negotiations with Saudi, however, adding that they were “concerned” the inter-agency process was not being followed……https://www.ft.com/content/a43577c0-5003-11e9-b401-8d9ef1626294