Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Thursday defended the Donald Trump administration’s decision to pursue sales of U.S.-made nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia, including by granting seven unidentified companies approval to transfer some technology and expertise to the nation.
On Wednesday, the Daily Beast reported, and Reuters confirmed, that the Department of Energy had granted seven companies Part 810 authorizations — named for the section of the Atomic Energy Act that enables such authorizations — to export some unclassified civilian nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia.
The seven companies requested and received anonymity from DOE because they “determined that the authorizations contain proprietary business information,” according to an agency statement published online Thursday.
The statement appeared after Perry came under fire about working with the Saudis during a Thursday hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Part 810 authorizations allow “technology transfers and assistance related to certain nuclear fuel-cycle activities, commercial nuclear power plants, and research and test reactors,” according to DOE’s summary of the Atomic Energy Act.
In its statement, the department said no “enrichment or reprocessing technology has been authorized to Saudi Arabia” yet.
Part 810 authorizations are separate from 123 agreements, which are named for a different part of the Atomic Energy Act. In a 123 agreement, a nation that wants to buy U.S. nuclear-power hardware and expertise certifies that it will use the technology and knowledge only for peaceful uses, and that it will adhere to strict nonproliferation standards and allow inspections of its power plants.
The United States has not yet prepared a 123 agreement with Saudi Arabia. Many in Congress oppose giving the kingdom any civilian nuclear technology at all, citing among other things Riyadh’s alleged role in the October murder of journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
At the same time, the House Oversight Committee is investigating the White House and the company IP3 International, led by former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, which has pushed for U.S. nuclear exports to the Middle East to prevent regional powers from acquiring the technology from Russia or China.
Russia and China, Perry said in the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, “don’t give a tinker’s dam” about nonproliferation.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is running for president in 2020, criticized Perry for appearing more interested in selling nuclear reactors than in preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
“You seem more focused on pushing the Saudi government to hire companies like Westinghouse to build reactors than you do on working with Congress to nail down an agreement that will prevent the Saudis from developing a nuclear weapon,” Warren said.
The House Oversight Committee has specifically put Westinghouse under the microscope, demanding records of the company’s communications, or even attempted communications, with the White House since the beginning of the Trump administration.
Warren said it is “a bad idea to even consider transferring our sensitive nuclear technology to the Saudi government,” but Perry held to his position that it was better than letting Russia or China provide the goods.
“We’ve got a history of nonproliferation, and nobody in the world will do it better than us,” Perry said. “[I]t is very, very important for the world, for the Middle East, for the United States, to be the partner in as many of these development of civil nuclear energy programs as we can be.”
