As Secretary of State Michael Pompeo flew this week to Saudi Arabia in the wake of missile attacks on the nation’s oil industry, Sens. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) urged him and Energy Secretary Rick Perry to break off nuclear technology negotiations with the U.S. ally.
“Sharing nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia, especially without adequate safeguards, will give Riyadh the tools it needs to turn … Crown Prince’s [Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud] nuclear weapons vision into reality,” the senators wrote in a letter to the two Cabinet members. “It will also fail to promote U.S. leverage or influence.”
Noted nuclear doves, Markey and Merkley have opposed the Donald Trump administration’s controversial effort to sell U.S. nuclear technology to America’s oil-rich ally in the Persian Gulf. There is bipartisan opposition to a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia in Congress, in part because of the kingdom’s suspected role in the October 2018 murder of U.S. resident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Turkey.
The Department of Energy this year granted seven companies Part 810 authorizations — named for the section of the Atomic Energy Act that enables such authorizations — to export some unclassified civilian nuclear power knowledge to Saudi Arabia. The authorization applies to nuclear know-how, not hardware or materials.
For the latter, Saudia Arabia would need a 123 Agreement: a pact named for another part of the Atomic Energy Act, and which lays out strict guidelines for accepting U.S. help in building nuclear power plants. Among other things, the kingdom would have to commit to regular and intrusive inspections, and reaffirm its goal of civilian-only use of nuclear technology.
Ultimately, the State and Commerce departments would have to clear exports of U.S. nuclear technology and fuel to Saudi Arabia. The Department of Energy would weigh in as a technical adviser.
Along with other nuclear issues, candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination have made the possible transfer of U.S. nuclear technology to Saudia Arabia into a 2020 campaign issue. Earlier this year in a Senate hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) hammered Energy Secretary Rick Perry over the 810 authorizations, calling them a bad idea.
Saudi Arabia is a non-weapon-state signatory of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, meaning it has agreed not to develop nuclear weapons even if it seeks a civilian nuclear power program. Nevertheless, the Saudi crown prince has said that if neighboring Iran, a U.S. and Saudi adversary, choses to develop nuclear weapons, the kingdom might explore doing the same.
Iran insists it does not seek nuclear weapons, a claim to which the Donald Trump administration — and some of his political opponents — are skeptical.
Media reported that Houthi rebels, fighting a civil war in neighboring Yemen, claimed responsibility for the attack on Saudi oilfields that brought Pompeo to Riyadh this week. The U.S. accused Iran of orchestrating the attack, which Tehran has denied.
