{"id":10259,"date":"2026-08-22T06:28:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T21:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/?p=10259"},"modified":"2026-08-23T07:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T22:00:06","slug":"u-s-saudi-nuclear-agreement-opens-door-to-civilian-nuclear-cooperation-with-one-major-caveat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/sdgs-2\/u-s-saudi-nuclear-agreement-opens-door-to-civilian-nuclear-cooperation-with-one-major-caveat\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Agreement Opens Door to Civilian Nuclear Cooperation, with One Major Caveat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0Maximilian Malawista<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNITED NATIONS<\/strong> (IPS)\u00a0<\/strong>– On\u00a0Wednesday, July 22<\/a>, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, and Saudi Arabia\u2019s Minister of Energy, HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz signed a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement, best known as a 123 agreement, as well as an accompanying bilateral safeguards agreement, according to the U.S. Department of Energy and the Saudi Ministry of Energy.\uff5cJAPANESE<\/a>\uff5c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the agreement was expected to be submitted to Congress for review, President Donald Trump has conditioned<\/a> U.S. nuclear cooperation on Riyadh, normalizing relations with Israel in order to receive U.S. nuclear technology. A condition that appears difficult to satisfy given the Kingdom\u2019s hardline stance<\/a> that it will not normalize relations with Israel until a Palestinian state is established with East Jerusalem as its capital, according to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia\u2019s de facto leader.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Map
Map of Middle East<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Washington mentions that these two agreements \u201clay the legal foundation for a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar partnership that advances several priority economic and strategic objectives, including nuclear nonproliferation.\u201d The agreement has a 30-year<\/a> term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 123 agreement, named after Section 123<\/a> of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 \u2013 a U.S. federal law \u2013 provides the legal framework for long-term civilian nuclear cooperation between the United States and partner countries. The 123 agreement is mandatory before any significant exports of U.S.-origin nuclear material, such as nuclear reactors, nuclear fuel, and other major components can go to any partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saudi Arabia\u2019s nuclear agreement with the U.S. is more than an energy deal. It has the potential to reshape the Kingdom\u2019s relationship with oil, and its geopolitical role in building the Middle East\u2019s next-generation clean-energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advent of nuclear energy could also free up the amount of hydrocarbons Saudi Arabia can export. The Kingdom produced<\/a> 22,744,529.0 TJ of oil and oil products in 2023, having consumed 6.4 million TJ domestically, equivalent to approximately 28 percent of its production. The Kingdom also produced 3,640,348.0 TJ of natural gas, having consumed all of its domestically produced natural gas that year. For reference, 3,600 TJ is equal to 1 TWh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expressed in barrels of oil equivalent (boe), Saudi Arabia produced the energy equivalent to 3.72 billion barrels of oil, in oil and oil products in 2023, consuming 1.05 billion barrels of that oil. This indicates that roughly 72 percent of the Kingdom\u2019s oil and oil products, measured in energy terms, are not domestically consumed, leaving a substantial share available for exports and other uses. Saudi Arabia is the world\u2019s second to third largest exporter of oil, producing 11 percent of global demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), transport accounts for roughly 30 percent of Saudi Arabia\u2019s final energy consumption, followed by non-energy uses (29.7 percent), industry (19.9 percent), and commercial and public services (11 percent).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the pace at which Saudi Arabia can transition away from fossil fuels remains uncertain, nuclear power could gradually reduce domestic oil consumption, freeing up oil for export. According<\/a> to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), a reactor can take about five or more years to be built after licensing and regulatory approvals are already completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Saudi Arabia aims to curb domestic oil and natural gas consumption through nuclear power, freeing more hydrocarbons for export and accelerating the transformation of its energy system. Nuclear cooperation with the United States could also reshape the Kingdom\u2019s economic strategy and geopolitical role in the Middle East.\u3000Image: INPS Japan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Saudi Arabia\u2019s first nuclear plant is expected to consist of two reactors, each producing<\/a> around 1.4 GW, bringing the plant to a total capacity of 2.8 GW (2,800 MW). Assuming<\/a> a 90 percent capacity factor, annual energy generation will be 22.1 TWh per year, nearly five percent of Saudi Arabia\u2019s 431.9 TWh electricity generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Saudi Arabia\u2019s first nuclear plant would account for only about 5 percent of the Kingdom\u2019s current electricity generation, it would represent an important step toward reducing domestic hydrocarbon consumption in support of the country\u2019s national strategy, Vision 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

INPS Japan\/ IPS UN Bureau Report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Maximilian Malawista UNITED NATIONS (IPS)\u00a0– On\u00a0Wednesday, July 22, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, and Saudi Arabia\u2019s Minister of Energy, HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz signed a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement, best known as a 123 agreement, as well as an accompanying bilateral safeguards agreement, according to the U.S. Department of Energy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,10,38,16,39,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy-finance-trade","category-goal7","category-middle-east","category-news","category-north-america","category-sdgs-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10259"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10264,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10259\/revisions\/10264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}