The US Energy Secretary revealed that his country and Saudi Arabia have agreed in principle on a nuclear cooperation agreement.
Full details of the agreement will be released later. At this stage, there is no indication that this agreement is part of the normalization agreement with Israel – a condition that the Biden administration has insisted on.
The US desire to conclude an agreement stems from the economic benefits that the American economy will derive from it – tens of billions of dollars. Saudi Arabia has plans to build up to 16 nuclear reactors over the next 20-25 years at an estimated cost of $80-100 billion.
If American companies win 25%-30% of the contracts, this amounts to $20-30 billion in equipment and technology exports. Among the companies that will benefit from this are Westinghouse, General Electric, and Bechtel.