According to American media reports, the US and Saudi Arabia are about to announce an agreement. Under this agreement, Saudi Arabia will get permission to develop its civilian nuclear program. Through this, Saudi Arabia will be able to enrich uranium on its land. American companies may get the job of building a plant to develop enriched uranium.
This agreement will be different from the agreement that America made with Saudi Arabia’s neighboring country United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2009. Under that agreement, UAE does not produce its own fuel. Apart from this, many other restrictions are also accepted.
This possible agreement between America and Saudi Arabia may also increase the concern of those advocating non-proliferation, whose main objective is to stop the increase in the number of nuclear weapons around the world.
Why is Israel worried about the Saudi Arabia-US agreement?
On the other hand, the nuclear issue remained the center of the months-long conflict between America and Israel with Iran. Both countries said that one of the reasons for attacking Iran was to stop it from developing nuclear weapons. In such a situation, nuclear experts and former officials of America’s close ally Israel have expressed concern that due to this plan, Saudi Arabia may gain the ability to develop nuclear weapons in the future.
Saudi Arabia said – not planning to acquire nuclear weapons
However, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has said that his country is not planning to acquire nuclear weapons. But there is no doubt that if Iran makes a nuclear bomb, we will do the same as soon as possible. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump has already approved the US-Saudi agreement to be unveiled on Wednesday and this agreement will remain in force for 30 years.
What is uranium enrichment?
The fuel used in nuclear reactors is prepared from natural uranium. The process of increasing the amount of U-235 isotope present in it is called uranium enrichment. Enriched uranium up to 3-5% is used for power generation, more than 20% enriched uranium for research and around 90% enriched uranium for special use, used to develop nuclear weapons.
How different is the agreement with Saudi Arabia from the India-US nuclear deal?
The civil nuclear deal between India and America in 2008 was done under completely different circumstances. India was already a nuclear weapons country. Therefore it was kept out of the global nuclear trade. After this agreement, India got international access to nuclear fuel, reactor and technology. However, permission was not granted for new uranium enrichment because India developed its capacity first.
The basis of the Saudi agreement is the possible permission for domestic uranium enrichment. According to reports, the IAEA’s additional monitoring protocol is not being included in the US-Saudi agreement. However, India had kept civilian nuclear plants under IAEA monitoring.
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