The United States and Saudi Arabia have finalized their negotiations on sharing nuclear power technology, Bloomberg has reported, which could eventually see U.S. companies build nuclear power plants in the kingdom.
The White House said in a fact sheet following the talks that the agreement signed by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and his Saudi colleague, Abdulaziz bin Salman, builds the legal framework for follow-up, more specific nuclear cooperation documents. Whether these would include a requirement that the technology will not be used for weapons-grade uranium enrichment remains to be clarified, Bloomberg noted in its report.
The fact sheet did include the statement that the agreement “ensures that all cooperation will be conducted in a manner consistent with strong nonproliferation standards.”
“We’ve come together on a deal for civil nuclear cooperation. Together, with bilateral safeguard agreements, we want to grow our partnership, bring American nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia and keep a firm commitment to nonproliferation,” Secretary Wright said in a statement.
Nonproliferation considerations have been a stumbling block for U.S.-Saudi nuclear power cooperation for years as the Saudis refused to sign a clause prohibiting the enrichment of uranium beyond civil uses and the United States refused to share its nuclear technology without that clause.
Back in 2017, when the nuclear tech sharing talks between Saudi Arabia and the United States began, Riyadh planned to build some 17.6 GW of nuclear power capacity by 2032, which equals around 16 reactors.
“We have large resources of uranium that we are exploring and we are extremely encouraged. We’re going to harvest our resources, we’re going to localize and we’re going to develop the technology just as we’ve done with oil and gas,” Khalid al-Falih, energy minister at the time, said.
The deterioration of bilateral relations during the Biden presidency delayed any cooperation but Trump’s second term brought the Saudis back to the nuclear talks table.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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