With Trump's Approval, King Salman One Step Closer to Securing Nuclear Site
United States President Donald Trump has officially submitted a proposed civil nuclear energy agreement with Saudi Arabia to Congress, initiating a mandatory review period that could open access for the kingdom to advanced US nuclear technology. A US official confirmed the submission of the document, stating that the agreement led by the Department of Energy is fully in line with the Atomic Energy Act. The filing was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The president’s position reportedly remains unchanged regarding the key condition of the pact. The massive deal will only proceed if Saudi Arabia agrees to join the Abraham Accords. The agreement, reached in July, allows US companies to export civil nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. The 30-year deal also requires the kingdom to build AP1000 reactors.
The reactor project is worth tens of billions of US dollars and would greatly benefit Westinghouse, a company now jointly owned by Canadian entities Cameco and Brookfield Asset Management. The US Congress now has 90 continuous session days to review the agreement. The pact will automatically take effect if there is no formal rejection from parliament.
Trump indicated last month that the terms of the deal would absolutely prevent Saudi Arabia from enriching uranium. “There will be no enrichment of material! This agreement is entirely contingent upon Saudi Arabia joining the highly respected and successful Abraham Accords,” he asserted.
However, several Democratic lawmakers and non-proliferation advocates have sharply criticised the pact. They argue that the deal does not include a permanent ban on enrichment or reprocessing, and that it significantly weakens standard controls against military use. Instead, the agreement merely proposes an enrichment facility built and operated by the US, which would be subject only to a two-year feasibility study.
Matthew Kroenig, a senior researcher at the Atlantic Council think tank, highlighted the risks of the deal in July. “Washington does have the right to strengthen its relationship with Riyadh, but it should not do so at the expense of its nuclear non-proliferation standards,” he explained. Kroenig predicted that the two-year feasibility study would ultimately conclude that Saudi Arabia should rely only on imported fuel cycle services, which he argued is far better than exporting bomb-making capabilities to an already volatile region.
Erin Dumbacher, a senior nuclear security researcher at the Council on Foreign Relations, noted that this historic agreement comes at a time when the global nuclear order is beginning to fray. The former US Department of Defense official assessed that Trump’s move is very different from America’s strict approach in the past. “This is a slippery slope towards more countries possessing nuclear materials without the measures that have kept the total number of nuclear-armed states at just nine,” she said. “More uncontrolled nuclear materials around the world could lead to accidents, security risks, and more proliferation,” she added.
On the geopolitical front, Riyadh has indicated that it will not normalise relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognised. This bargaining position has reportedly hardened since the Gaza war erupted in 2023. The situation is growing increasingly tense amid the threat of weapons of mass destruction proliferation in the Middle East. Saudi officials have previously stated plainly that the kingdom would pursue nuclear weapons capability if its rival, Iran, succeeds in developing them.