{"id":563843,"date":"2026-07-23T06:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T06:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/563843\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T06:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T06:38:10","slug":"saudi-arabia-to-build-nuclear-reactors-using-us-technology-as-part-of-new-agreement-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/563843\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia to build nuclear reactors using US technology as part of new agreement \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US<\/a> and Saudi Arabia<\/a> have reached an \u200bagreement on civil nuclear power<\/a>, the US energy department said on Wednesday, a deal that allows the kingdom to build nuclear reactors using American technology and to enrich uranium. <\/p>\n

A civil nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia has been in the works for years \u200bduring both president Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s first administration and that of former president Joe Biden<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Unlike the Biden plan, the current deal \u2060does not include a so-called Additional Protocol that allows the United Nation<\/a>\u2019s International Atomic Energy Agency to \u200ccarry \u200cout \u200bintrusive snap inspections. The deal would also allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium and reprocess nuclear waste, both of which are potential pathways to making a nuclear weapon. <\/p>\n

The UAE agreed to forgo both \u200bof those when it signed a similar deal \u200bwith the US in 2009. US secretary of energy Chris Wright and his counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman \u200csigned the pact, known as a 123 \u200bAgreement, alongside a bilateral safeguards agreement, the US energy department said in a release.<\/p>\n

The administration said the \u2060deal also abides by non-proliferation agreements in \u2060the US Atomic Energy \u200bAct, which are among the world\u2019s strongest. Saudi Arabia has long said if it does not partner with the US, it could partner with China or Russia which have different proliferation standards.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Why has the US done a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The energy department said the deal now goes to the US Congress. Unless Congress raises votes to object to the deal within 90 session days, the deal will go into force. <\/p>\n

But it would need to have a two-thirds majority to override a presidential veto. Several Democratic<\/a> \u200crepresentatives have raised concerns that \u2060the deal could spark an arms race in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has repeatedly said he does not want the kingdom to build a \u200cnuclear weapon but it would if Iran did. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey are allowing Saudi Arabia, a belligerent and authoritarian nation, to develop nuclear \u200bweapons technologies while starting a war with Iran<\/a> under the guise of \u200bpreventing an Iranian nuclear bomb,\u201d said US senator Edward Markey, a Democrat. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis deal would make us all less safe.\u201d \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US and Saudi Arabia have reached an \u200bagreement on civil nuclear power, the US energy department said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14843,969,42,11829,5455,43,34005,383,40,38,41,39,20966,115],"class_list":["post-563843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-democratic-party","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-joe-biden","tag-news","tag-nuclear-power","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trump-presidency","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}