Posted on 07/22/2026 2:04:34 PM PDT by RandFan
Summary
The US has signed a landmark nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia
The US Department of Energy says the "peaceful nuclear co-operation agreement" will provide "great access" for US firms to the Saudi nuclear energy programme
A "bilateral safeguards agreement" has also been signed as part of the deal, it says
US media reported before the deal was announced that it could potentially allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium itself - we're yet to see the full details
The fear is that if Saudi Arabia starts enriching its own uranium, hardliners in Iran could be encouraged to secretly race to build a bomb, writes our security correspondent
The deal follows years of stalled talks between the US and Saudi Arabia
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Middle East expert Rosemary Kelanic says it’s “quite shocking” that the US is potentially signing a deal that will allow Saudi Arabia to have facilities to enrich uranium.
She references reported details of the deal, including the prospects that it may contain “potential co-operation” in building uranium enrichment facilities within Saudi territory.
“The US has never done that before, we have never helped another country enrich on their own soil,” she tells the BBC.
She says the reason for this is that “if you can produce your own nuclear fuel, you become a much bigger risk” for building nuclear weapons.
By the way, it’s fine to say if you’re not cool about this or skeptical.
Isn’t that what the checks and balances are for?
Can Congress stop something like this?
āThe fear is that if Saudi Arabia starts enriching its own uranium, hardliners in Iran could be encouraged to secretly race to build a bomb, writes our security correspondentā
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OMG, like Iran isnāt already doing that as we all sit here. Captain Obvious.
Weird that some people get super upset when a somewhat friendly country is going to pay the US billions of dollars for a civilian nuclear energy program, but merrily look the other way when an enemy country, sworn to destroy us is getting a nuclear bomb.
Well said and it is so childish to pin this on Israel, as if Iran is not a serious and imminent threat to the whole world.
I said here at the outset of the Iran war that if the Iranian regime there survived it would be even more highly motivated to pursue nuclear weapons at all costs. And that that would force the Saudis to respond by going nuclear themselves. It looks like (A) the Saudis are assessing that Iran will win the war, and (B) that Washington is acknowledging this, and rather than lose another ally is going along with their plans to go nuclear. What could go wrong?... sigh.
And it wonāt end well for anyone.
If MBS wants a nuclear reactor, he’ll find someone to sell him one. Period. Full Stop.
The only way for the US to temper what the Saudi’s uses for the reactor might be are to get in on it from the ground floor and see to it the US is in control of its operation and oversight.
Well said!
Better to be in the tent pissing out then outside the tent trying to piss in!
What is Donald J Trump smoking? !!
The Saudi’s have oil and natural gas to use.
They have ZERO need to nuclear power plants.
And it wonāt end well for anyone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sure it will.
They get nuclear reactors and uranium enrichment and we get mega-mosques, jihadis and more Mamdanis. It’s at least 27D chess.
Aside from The US, Russia and China and North Korea, what other countries can make their own nuclear fuel. Letās seeā¦ Germany, France, The UK, Sweden, India, Pakistan, Israel, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Thatās a whole lot of ā riskā out there.
You miss the point, if we don’t put our nuke tech in the Kingdom China will. It’s not ok we won’t have nukes it’s who’s nuke tech gets built there.
They need nukes for seawater desal it’s that simple. Oil is going to run short its when not if and sooner than most people think and cognitive dissonance with people refusing to accept simple grade school level math. I am a PhD geologist and 20+ year industry vet I say with utmost confidence having set foot on 6 of 7 continent and in almost every basin on earth or floated above it. We have at most 45-50 years of liquid hydrocarbons at anything that approaches economically production levels.
Nukes are 80-100 year investments for modern gen 3 nukes this is exactly the reason the Kingdom wants them and the UAE is already heavy into nuclear power. They have existential need for desal they simply cannot keep all their people alive without power and thermal energy for their desal plants.
Irony is the Chinese built Westinghouse AP reactors using our tech and did triple cogen with them, electricity, desalination AND district heating something we refuse to do in the USA. They then took that design made it cheaper , faster to build and standardized it to have their first indigenous triple cogen design which they can cookie cutter them world wide and are in the belt and road nations.
We have no choice but to make a sweetheart deal with the Kingdom or China will add them to their fold.
Exactly this
The UAE got the bigger sibling of this design a massive four pad plant with 5600+ MW of output nothing the West has built in the last 30 years even comes close to those monsters and Dubai is looking at a four pad plant for itself to compete with Abu Dhabi.
[The APR-1400 design was originally developed from the System 80+ design. This was an American reactor design owned by Combustion Engineering, which was later acquired by the US nuclear firm Westinghouse. Because of these historical roots, the manufacturing and international export of the APR-1400 involves underlying US licensing and supply chain partnerships.]
Oh and there is this gem.
Using a specialized low-temperature Multi-Effect Distillation (LT-MED) system with vacuum and spray assist, the waste heat from all four units at the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant could theoretically produce roughly 4.96 million cubic meters (1.31 billion gallons) of freshwater per day.This massive output could meet nearly 80% of the entire United Arab Emirates’ daily domestic water demand purely by capturing energy that is currently discharged directly into the Persian Gulf.
That’s one plant this is why the Middle East is getting nukes if you add in the existing RO plants driven by gas turbines for their electricity needs the nukes replace gas turbines on a per megawatt basis with ease and the cost per kWh is cheaper with nukes not built in the USA with crazy Union labor and lawfare jacking the prices up. The Koreans and Chinese both just build shit and tell the lawyers and unions to shove it.
Not against nuclear for powering everyday needs. I was trying to think of another way to express it. If a nation has nuclear power for destructive use, that is of course a problem, & the fewer that have that, the fewer that are inclined to use it. Sometimes, it is difficult to completely separate the two uses for nuclear. My personal wish would be to find a way to use use nuclear only for peaceful purposes in such a way that it could not possibly be used for destruction, but I don’t think we’re there yet.
I keep hearing how our oil production is ultimately limited, but then there are some who apparently are not buying into this. Is it just because they are seeking heavily into nuclear or is it because they feel the earth’s resources will just ultimately give out? I’ve heard both sides & just don’t know who is right.
I’m not so sure about that. Most Freepers appear to worship every thing Trump does with no room for criticism.
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