A pair of nuclear doves in the Senate demanded this week that Energy Secretary Rick Perry brief them about his negotiations to bring U.S. nuclear-power technology to Saudi Arabia.
In a Tuesday letter to Perry, Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) also told Perry the United States should indefinitely suspend any efforts to grease the skids for the sale of U.S. nuclear-power technology to Riyadh until the government there shares what it knows about the murder of journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Turkey in October.
In meetings abroad last week, Perry and Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih “continued their dialog” on a potential agreement that could help clear the way to bring U.S. atomic energy technology to the kingdom, according to a Department of Energy readout published Monday.
“It is imperative that you brief us and all other interested members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on any and all of your discussions regarding civil nuclear cooperation during your recent trip to the region, as well as the Trump administration’s rationale for continuing these sensitive discussions at all,” Markey and Merkley wrote.
The Department of Energy did not reply to a request for comment this week on the senators’ letter.
Markey and Merkley often collaborate on strongly worded legislation that establishes the left-most boundary of nuclear policy debates in Congress. The Oregon senator co-sponsored no-first-use legislation filed by Markey last year to prohibit the United States from launching nuclear weapons unless another national launches them first. That bill did not make it out of the Foreign Relations Committee.
In matters of U.S.-Saudi civil-nuclear cooperation, however, Markey and Merkley have the backing of outgoing committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).
Corker in July approved a Senate resolution authored by the two Democrats that would if passed by the full Senate establish a bipartisan position that the U.S. should not share its nuclear-power technology with Saudi Arabia unless the nation agrees not to enrich its own uranium or separate plutonium from future spent fuel.
Enriched uranium and plutonium are the materials of choice for nuclear weapons, which the kingdom currently does not possess.
If the U.S. should decide to share nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia, Markey and Merkley insisted on the strictest nuclear-nonproliferation standards, as provided for in U.S. law.
The Atomic Energy Act allows the U.S. to enter into nuclear cooperation deals — informally called 123 agreements, based on the corresponding section of the law — with countries that want to build a peaceful nuclear power program, provided strict safeguards are in place to ensure the technology is not weaponized.
A 123 agreement requires congressional approval and also an explanation from the State Department about how the proposed deal will ensure the nonproliferation standards mandated by federal law — among other things, that the nation acquiring U.S. nuclear power technology promise not use it for military purposes, and that the importing nation allow its nuclear facilities to be inspected by the U.N.-chartered International Atomic Energy Agency.
