File written by Adobe Photoshop? 4.0There is a lot going on right now in the Middle East with the US
trying to get a new nuclear deal with Iran while balancing threats from
Israel to bomb Iran and demands by Saudi Arabia to have uranium
enrichment of its own as a deterrent to Iran.
Following is a
modest proposal to address these issues. Obviously, a lot of details
would need to be worked out but here is the basic framework.
The Plan
- Make Oman the site of a regional uranium enrichment facility to
serve Saudi Arabia, and other Middle Eastern nations, like Jordan, that
want commercial nuclear reactors. Limit enrichment to less than 20% U235
to accommodate the needs of both light water and advanced designs.
- Add on a fuel fabrication facility in Oman or commercial fuel to serve regional customers
- URENCO supplies enrichment centrifuges and fuel fabrication capabilities.
- IAEA inspections and oversight occur per international
treaties which Oman signs on to guarantee supplies of uranium from the
Nuclear Suppliers Group.
- Oman signs a 123 Agreement with the US to get access to US nuclear
technology and to win regional and global political support
going forward.
- Iran keeps its current enrichment facilities for its domestic use,
with no expansion, only replacement of current centrifuges, AND must
downblend all U235 enriched above 20% in its inventory to below that
level. Since the inventory is in gaseous form as UF6, that’s not a big
deal. Iran keeps its inventory of enriched uranium which is below 20%
U235.
- Saudi Arabia does NOT get an enrichment plant. It is guaranteed
access to commercial nuclear fuel from the enrichment and fuel
fabrication facilities at Oman. Saudi Arabia signs a 123 Agreement with
the US banning enrichment and reprocessing of spent fuel, which is the
same as the one signed by the UAE.
- Spent fuel from commercial reactors in the region is shipped to
France where it is reprocessed into MOX fuel for use in commercial
reactors. France does this now for Japan and could do it for other
nations.
- Financing of the enrichment and fuel fabrication facilities would be provided by a regional consortium of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other nations, including the US, to insure its success and continuing engagement of all stakeholders.
Why It Would Work
- Iran retains its investment in uranium enrichment for domestics
commercial reactors but is blocked from creating weapons grade
highly enriched uranium. It eliminates the current inventory of HEU.
This plan also eliminates a justification by Netanyahu, or a successor,
to bomb Iran’s uranium plants.
- Saudi Arabia is no longer a “threat” to Iran in a nuclear arms race,
but it gets all the nuclear fuel it needs for its planned commercial
reactors to power its cities and its plan for a huge expansion of power
hungry data centers supporting artificial intelligence
- Oman gets a huge economic boost as a high-tech nuclear fuel center.
- All nuclear fuel in the region is under IAEA inspection by treaty obligations