A typical of the United States government said Saturday that it would not help Saudi Arabia develop nuclear technology without undertakings that it would only be used for civilian purposes.
Saudi Arabia has put the U.S. on a shortlist with China, Russia and others to bid for atomic power projects in the country. Washington sees Saudi Arabia as a big customer of American nuclear expertise and hardware, but lawmakers from both U.S. civil parties are demanding a deal be based on tough controls.
Section 123 of the United States Atomic Energy Act of 1954, titled “Helping hand With Other Nations,” sets an agreement for cooperation as a prerequisite for nuclear deals between the U.S. and any other nation. Secondary to a “123 measure,” any U.S. nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia would prohibit routes toward the making of atomic weapons by banning enrichment of uranium or the reprocessing of plutonium.
Speaking to CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at the Munich Security Forum on Saturday, the U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, said such an agreement was imperative to any nuclear deal with Riyadh.
“We won’t put aside them to bypass 123 if they want to have civilian nuclear power that includes U.S. nuclear technologies.”
The chief energy official said as countries pursued more environmentally friendly and emissions-free technologies, nuclear had to be a part of the dialogue. And while countries should pursue nuclear energy technologies they must do so under a U.S. regime that curbs the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
“As you know this technology has a dual use and in the wrong hands it becomes a dangerous, dangerous globe,” said Brouillette.
The Saudis have so far refused to rule out their right to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, pointing to neighboring Iran’s talents to do so under the 2015 nuclear agreement that world powers struck with Tehran.
In an interview in March on CBS’s “60 Write downs” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the country wasn’t interested in developing weapons but would expose nuclear capability should Iran ever develop a working nuclear bomb.