Saudi Arabia to grant IAEA expanded nuclear inspections, stopping short of full protocol

Saudi Arabia is preparing to give the International Atomic Energy Agency expanded authority to verify and monitor sensitive nuclear activities under its planned civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States. Riyadh is not expected to formally adopt the IAEA’s Additional Protocol, which permits broader inspections, including access to undeclared sites, but IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said the planned measures would be “very, very similar” in areas such as uranium conversion, enrichment and spent-fuel reprocessing. The arrangements would go beyond Saudi Arabia’s existing obligations under its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, although their precise terms have not been disclosed. The U.S.-Saudi agreement, reached in July, would allow Saudi Arabia to build reactors and potentially enrich uranium using American technology. Nonproliferation groups have criticized the absence of a formal Additional Protocol, citing concerns about the risks associated with enrichment and reprocessing.