Why Is the U.S. Building the Saudi Nuclear Program While Destroying Iran’s?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Rachel Abrams** (0:33)
From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily. On Wednesday, the United States signed a historic deal that allows Saudi Arabia to develop a nuclear program. Even as the Trump administration escalates a war against Iran, that the White House says is about destroying its nuclear capabilities. Today, David Sanger explains what Saudi Arabia and the US are each getting out of the deal, and why it's prompted worries about nuclear proliferation across a region that has already engulfed in an escalating war. It's Thursday, July 23rd.
So David, when I saw this news about this Saudi nuclear deal, I will confess I was surprised. I had a bunch of questions, but I assume that you, longtime Washington correspondent, nuclear expert, were probably not quite as surprised as I was.

**David Sanger** (1:42)
Not surprised because this has been brewing for a long time.
More than 10 years, actually. But it has taken many different forms. For a while, the Biden administration wanted to make this part of a much broader deal with Saudi Arabia about recognizing Israel. The Trump administration has dealt with it more as a business deal, but we knew it was coming. The question is, what were the terms?

**Rachel Abrams** (2:07)
So let's actually talk about that next. What do we know so far about what is included in this deal?

**David Sanger** (2:13)
Well, the core of it is that Saudi Arabia gets to build at least two nuclear reactors, probably more. That this will last for three decades. And that the business will largely go to American companies, which is to say Westinghouse, which even though it has significant Canadian ownership these days, is still a big jobs provider in the US. So what the United States gets out of it is an extension of the president's determination to export American goods and to make sure that American allies are tied to American energy systems.
But there's a catch, as there always is, with things nuclear. And that has to do with the question of who makes Saudi Arabia's fuel and what kind of inspections the Saudis agree to.

**Rachel Abrams** (3:08)
And just to be clear, David, it sounds like from what you're describing that this is a civilian energy program, right?

**David Sanger** (3:15)
It's entirely a civilian energy program, which means that its intent is to help Saudi Arabia build nuclear power plants the way many other advanced economies have, including many countries that don't have nuclear weapons. Think about Japan or Germany or South Korea. But the critical problem comes in the supply of nuclear fuel.
If you are making your own nuclear fuel and enriching uranium up to, say, 3 percent, well, that's fine. That's the level at which you can use that uranium as a source for your nuclear electricity generation.
But if you keep enriching up to 90 percent, suddenly you have the makings of an atomic bomb. So the whole effort from the 1950s forward, from Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace program to spread nuclear technology around the world and make cheap nuclear energy available to all, has been to find a way to let countries produce nuclear energy without getting the stuff they need to divert to a nuclear weapons program.

**Rachel Abrams** (4:31)
Just so I'm clear, David, this deal is about providing Saudi Arabia with fuel, right? Not letting them enrich their own fuel, which would avoid the threat that you just explained.

**David Sanger** (4:41)
Well, Rachel, that's where this deal gets very vague. It allows the Saudis to purchase the nuclear reactors, which will take years to build.
But it doesn't resolve the question of whether they are making their own fuel or whether they are buying it from someone else, including the United States. Instead, it refers that to a committee to go study the question of whether or not it even makes economic sense for Saudi Arabia to make its own fuel.

**Rachel Abrams** (5:12)
It sort of kicks that can down the road, it sounds like, on this important question.

**David Sanger** (5:15)
It does.

**Rachel Abrams** (5:16)
Okay, I want to back up just for a second though, David, because you had said just a couple minutes ago that this deal had been in the works for a really long time. So I want to talk about the origin of all of this. Like when and why did these talks begin in the first place?