(April 16, 2025)

Apparently concerned about the potential risk of Saudi nuclear proliferation, Wright also stated, “There will definitely be a 123 agreement.” This was a reference to the eponymous section of the 1954 U.S. Atomic Energy Act, which mandates that formal proliferation safeguards must be put in place before American agencies or companies can help a country start up a civil nuclear industry. The “gold standard” version of a 123 agreement explicitly prohibits enriching or reprocessing nuclear material—a limitation that only the United Arab Emirates and Taiwan have accepted in the past. Countries must instead agree to import reactor fuel rather than producing it themselves, and allow international inspections as well.