The Trump administration signed a nuclear power agreement with Saudi Arabia on July 22, 2026. The deal opens the door for American companies to build and run nuclear power plants in the kingdom. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed the pact, which the Department of Energy announced the same day. NPR

The agreement gives U.S. companies priority access to Saudi Arabia's nuclear energy program, including the ability to supply reactors and fuel. The Department of Energy said the deal is expected to last decades and be worth billions of dollars.

The two sides also signed an accompanying safeguards agreement alongside the main pact. The DOE had previously referred to the arrangement as a "Joint Declaration on the Completion of Negotiations on Civil Nuclear Cooperation." DOE

The deal now goes to Congress, which has 90 days to review it under a law called the Atomic Energy Act. If Congress does not vote to reject the deal within that window, it takes effect automatically.

The agreement does not include what experts call "gold standard" protections. Those are rules that would ban Saudi Arabia from enriching uranium or reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. Think of enrichment as processing uranium to make reactor fuel. The same process, taken further, can also produce material for a nuclear bomb. Reprocessing involves extracting plutonium from used reactor fuel, which can also be used for weapons. The deal also does not require Saudi Arabia to adopt an optional international oversight agreement called the Additional Protocol.

An administration memo seen by NPR states that the U.S. "does not support a Saudi nuclear weapons program" and that the agreement is limited to peaceful cooperation on nuclear energy. The memo says the agreement includes nonproliferation terms under the Atomic Energy Act. It also states that the pact provides a legal pathway for nuclear fuel cycle cooperation but does not obligate the U.S. to transfer any fuel cycle capabilities or technologies to Saudi Arabia. NPR

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) said on X that Congress should approve the deal only if it includes the same gold-standard safeguards as the U.S. nuclear agreement with the United Arab Emirates. The UAE pact, signed in 2009, banned domestic enrichment and reprocessing altogether. Sherman's statement signals that the absence of equivalent restrictions in the Saudi agreement will be a focal point of congressional review.

The broader context here is that the missing gold standard is the central tension in this agreement. U.S. nuclear cooperation deals vary in how strictly they guard against the spread of weapons, and the decision to skip a full ban on enrichment and reprocessing is a deliberate policy choice by the administration. The memo's language, which offers a legal pathway for fuel cycle cooperation while saying the U.S. is not obligated to transfer those capabilities, leaves the question of future enrichment on Saudi soil unresolved rather than foreclosed.

Matthew Bunn, a nuclear proliferation expert at Harvard's Kennedy School, said the deal may make negotiating a reasonable agreement with Iran more difficult. The concern among nonproliferation analysts is that giving Saudi Arabia access to nuclear technology without a binding enrichment ban could complicate the broader regional effort to stop the spread of weapons, particularly given Tehran's own nuclear program.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has previously said that if Iran were to develop a nuclear weapon, Saudi Arabia would follow suit. That statement, made before the current agreement, frames the regional stakes that members of Congress and nonproliferation experts are weighing as they assess the deal.

The 90-day congressional review period will test whether the administration can hold together support for an agreement that delivers commercial opportunities for the U.S. nuclear industry while navigating proliferation concerns on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers in both parties have previously pressed for gold-standard terms in Saudi nuclear cooperation, and the House and Senate foreign affairs committees are expected to hold hearings during the review window.