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Saudi Arabia’s Nuclear Ambitions Have Put The U.S. Into A Bind

Yahoo News, Alexander C. Kaufman, September 4, 2023

Saudi Arabia’s bid to build its first nuclear energy station is setting up a tough choice for the United States: relax a Cold War-era policy designed to prevent the proliferation of atomic weapons, or risk pushing one of the world’s most powerful energy exporters further into China’s orbit. ……………………………………….

Since 1968, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons has set the ground rules for countries seeking to harness the awesome power released when uranium atoms split apart, barring the production of the most deadly materials used in bombs but still allowing nations to enrich, split and recycle their own uranium fuel. But the U.S. has required countries that want its help building nuclear reactors to go even further, signing on to what’s known as a 123 Agreement, a pact granting Washington even more control over how radioactive isotopes are used. The agreements, forged by the State Department and, like a treaty, subject to Senate confirmation, were created to encourage the use of atomic energy without raising the risk that facilities meant to enrich or reprocess uranium for reactor fuels might be misused to produce plutonium for weapons. 

In recent years, the U.S. has promoted what it calls “gold standard” agreements, in which the partner country promises to never enrich or reprocess its own fuel. In exchange for signing on to the first such a deal in 2008, Washington gave its blessing to the United Arab Emirates’ debut nuclear plant, which the oil-rich kingdom plans to tout in November when it hosts this year’s United Nations climate summit in Dubai. 

…………………………………….. Saudi Arabia began talks with the U.S. over the past year in which Riyadh opened the door to establishing diplomatic relations with Israel as part of a deal for nuclear energy. But last week, following an August summit of developing countries, The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia, the world’s No. 2 exporter of oil behind the U.S., was now considering an offer from China to build its debut reactors instead, with potentially far fewer strings attached. The Financial Times confirmed the claims in a report published a day later. 

…………………………………China is not expected to require Saudi Arabia, a country that owes its vast wealth and geopolitical influence to its energy exports, to forswear developing its own domestic industry to mine, enrich and recycle reactor fuel. ………………………….

September 5, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized