Saudi Arabia has a problem. Its population has grown to 36 million people, roughly double what it was at the start of the century. More people mean more air conditioning, more desalination, more factories.
The country already has nearly 12 gigawatts of solar capacity, but solar only works when the sun shines. To keep the lights on overnight and through dust storms, the kingdom needs something steady.
Nuclear power fits that bill. It is reliable, it does not produce carbon, and it carries a certain prestige for a nation that wants to be seen as a modern industrial player.
The deal signed this week allows American companies to bid on building those reactors. It also leaves the door open for a uranium enrichment facility - something no other Arab nation has done since the UAE renounced its own enrichment plans in 2009. That is where things get tricky.
Saudi Arabia does not exist in a vacuum. Right next door, the UAE already runs the Barakah nuclear plant, which opened in 2020 and now supplies about 25% of the country's electricity. Russia's Rosatom inked a $30 billion agreement with Egypt to build four reactors. Nuclear power is spreading across the region.
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But enrichment is different. When a country can spin uranium into fuel, it can also spin it into bomb material. That is why the International Atomic Energy Agency - the UN's nuclear watchdog - pays very close attention.
Iran is the elephant in the room. According to the latest IAEA assessment, Iran had amassed 441 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%, which is close to weapons-grade. It also held more than 8,000 kilograms of lower-enriched uranium.
That material, if enriched to higher levels, could have yielded enough for roughly a dozen nuclear bombs. Iran has insisted its program is "exclusively peaceful," but in June 2025, after US and Israeli strikes, the IAEA could no longer verify Iran's uranium reserves.
Israel already has an undeclared nuclear arsenal estimated at some 80 weapons, and it has been operating a plutonium-production reactor since 1963. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said publicly that if Iran develops nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia will seek them too. That logic is exactly what worries some security experts about this new deal.
The kingdom has refused unless Israel accepts Palestinian statehood. That negotiation is still unsettled.
Meanwhile, tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran have been rising this year. In response to US-Israeli strikes, Tehran launched thousands of drones and missiles at Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia. Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen have claimed attacks on Saudi oil tankers in July. The region is already on edge.
The deal still needs congressional approval, and the normalization question has not been answered. But the direction is clear.
Crude oil traded at $89.99 a barrel on the day of the announcement, up 2.39%.
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