Secret Nuclear Power agreement between Trump administration and Saudi Arabia

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A series of secret agreements have been approved to U.S companies. These agreements would allow the U.S companies to explore selling nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia. The U.S energy secretary, Rick Perry provided the approvals. These approvals are the Part 810 authorization to 6 firms to start preliminary work on nuclear power ahead of any deal but not ship equipment that would go into a plant. The US government has quietly pursued a wider deal on sharing its nuclear power technology with Saudi Arabia, which aims to build at least two nuclear power plants.

There are a number of countries including the US, South Korea, and Russia in competition for that deal. The winners are expected to be announced later this year by Saudi Arabia. The NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration) of the U.S Department of Energy said in a document that the companies had requested the Trump administration keep the approvals secret. The NNSA document further indicated, each of the companies which received a specific authorization for Saudi Arabia, have provided us written request that their authorization is withheld from public release.

The Energy Department formerly made previous Part 810 authorizations available for the public to read at its headquarters. A Department of Energy official said the requests contained proprietary information and that the authorizations went through a multiagency approval process. A number of lawmakers in the U.S are concerned about sharing nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia could eventually lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman informed a news outlet during last year that the kingdom would develop nuclear weapons if its rival Iran did. It is noteworthy that the kingdom has occasionally pushed back against agreeing to U.S standards that would block two paths to potentially making fissile material for nuclear weapons clandestinely: enriching uranium and reprocessing spent fuel. The Part 810 authorizations were made after November 2017, but it was not clear from the document whether any of them were made after Khashoggi’s killing.