Washington has reportedly cleared a civilian nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that includes a pathway to uranium enrichment.
President Donald Trump has approved a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the decision on Tuesday citing US officials.
As of the time of writing, the agreement had not been formally signed or publicly announced. Two people familiar with the decision, who told the Associated Press they were not authorised to comment publicly, said an announcement was expected as early as Wednesday. Reuters reported that the administration plans to submit the agreement to Congress within days, and that the document is to be signed by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman.
The agreement is a 123 Agreement, the legal instrument the United States uses to authorise the transfer of nuclear technology and material to another country. The name refers to Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954.
According to the Wall Street Journal report, the agreement would run 30 years, is valued in the tens of billions of dollars, and is designed to give American companies a central role in developing Saudi Arabia’s nuclear infrastructure.
Speaking in the Philippines on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would not reach any agreement with any country that leads to a risk of proliferation.
What the US-Saudi 123 Agreement Is Reported to Include
Under the terms described by the Wall Street Journal, Saudi Arabia would gain access to American nuclear technology for a civilian power programme.
On uranium enrichment, the report describes a staged process. A joint US-Saudi study would first determine whether an enrichment facility is warranted. If it proceeds, American companies would build the facility.
CNN, citing two US officials, reported that Saudi Arabia would not be required to sign the Additional Protocol, the enhanced inspection framework administered by the International Atomic Energy Agency. According to a US official quoted by CNN, Riyadh had long declined to sign the protocol over concerns that it could theoretically permit inspectors to enter the holy city of Makkah or royal palaces. The same officials said the agreement instead includes a bilateral safeguards agreement modelled on the protocol without those provisions, and that the IAEA Board of Governors would need to ratify its terms.
An earlier administration report to Congress, referenced in correspondence from lawmakers, described the draft agreement as applying additional safeguards and verification measures to the most proliferation-sensitive areas of cooperation, including enrichment, conversion, fuel fabrication and reprocessing.
Saudi Arabia is a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and has consistently stated that its nuclear programme is intended for civilian energy generation.
The step follows an earlier agreement between the two governments. According to a statement published by the US Department of Energy on November 18, 2025, Wright and Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed a Joint Declaration on the Completion of Negotiations on Civil Nuclear Cooperation. In that statement, Wright said the two countries had come together on a deal for civil nuclear cooperation and described bilateral safeguard agreements as part of a commitment to non-proliferation. A White House readout described the declaration as providing the legal foundation for a decades-long nuclear energy partnership. Al-Monitor reported that Wright and Prince Abdulaziz had signed a preliminary cooperation agreement in Riyadh in April 2025.
Uranium Enrichment and the Gold Standard Framework
The comparison raised in most reporting is the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE signed a 123 Agreement with Washington in 2009 covering the Barakah nuclear power plant, which was built with South Korean assistance. Under that agreement the UAE did not pursue enrichment or reprocessing domestically and adopted the IAEA Additional Protocol. The Associated Press reported that non-proliferation specialists have described that arrangement as the gold standard for countries developing civilian nuclear power.
Uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing are the two technical routes to producing the core material used in nuclear weapons. Enrichment is not itself unlawful and is the standard process for producing fuel for power reactors, though the same technology can produce highly enriched uranium if carried to much higher levels. Most countries operating civilian reactors purchase fuel from suppliers such as the United States or Russia rather than enriching domestically.
Congressional Review of the Saudi Nuclear Agreement
The agreement is expected to go to Congress once signed. Under the Atomic Energy Act, lawmakers have a continuous 90-day window to review a 123 Agreement. Blocking it requires a joint resolution of disapproval, which the president can veto. Overturning a veto requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers. Republicans currently hold majorities in the Senate and the House.
A group of lawmakers wrote to Rubio earlier this year urging the administration to seek an agreement meeting the gold standard, citing the absence of a blanket prohibition on enrichment and reprocessing and the omission of the Additional Protocol. Rubio, during his time in the Senate, was among those who had called for such provisions.
Negotiations between Washington and Riyadh over a civil nuclear agreement have continued across multiple administrations. Reuters and the Associated Press have reported that talks were under way from 2017 and continued under President Joe Biden.
Al-Monitor quoted Robert Einhorn, a former senior State Department official, as saying the agreement could help revitalise the US nuclear industry, strengthen US-Saudi ties and reduce the role of Russia and China in the Saudi programme.
Saudi Arabia has set out plans to diversify its domestic energy mix and reduce the volume of oil burned for power generation, with nuclear energy identified as one component alongside solar and wind capacity.
Disclaimer: This article is based on publicly available reports from international news agencies and official statements available at the time of publication. Developments may change as further official announcements are made.
