Saudi Arabia spending up to $450K in push for US nuclear sale

[Jim Morrison]

[url]http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/lobbying-contracts/377507-saudis-spending-up-to-450k-in-push-for-us-nuclear[/url]

[quote]Saudi Arabia has enlisted a trio of U.S. firms as it tries to persuade the Trump administration to sign off on a sale of nuclear reactors to the country.

Disclosures filed with the Justice Department, which oversees U.S. advocacy of foreign governments, show that Saudi Arabia could be spending upwards of $450,000 over a one-month period on advisers.

The country inked one 30-day contract with King & Spalding, beginning on Feb. 21, that states the firm could be paid up to $450,000.

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, which appears to be subcontracted through The Law Office of David B. Kultgen, is billing a “blended” $890-per-hourly rate. It is unclear how much Kulten, a former executive at Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco, is earning.

The firms will be working for the Ministry of Energy, Industry, and Mineral Resources of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia “in connection with a potential bilateral agreement on cooperation with the United States concerning peaceful uses of nuclear energy under Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.”

Saudi Arabia is seeking approval from the Trump administration to have American companies, such as Westinghouse, build nuclear reactors in their country. The country aims to buy 16 reactors at a price tag of $80 billion by 2023, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have to approve any deal involving a transfer of nuclear technologies from the United States, which are called 123 agreements. If the two countries reached an agreement, Congress would have 90 days to review it.

[B]There are skeptics of Saudi Arabia’s request, however, because the country has so far refused to agree to any limitations to what they can do with the reactors, such as forbidding the enrichment of uranium.[/B][/quote]

[Archangel125]

Given it's Saudi Arabia we're talking about here, I'm going to say this is a bad idea. You want to sell 'em reactors, give em thorium reactors or something. Give them the means to develop nukes, and I virtually guarantee some royal is going to start selling them to terrorist groups.

[Raidyr]

[QUOTE]The contracts with the law firms were signed shortly before Energy Secretary Rick Perry cancelled a trip to India, instead heading to London to meet with Saudi Arabia’s minister of Energy and Industry. The trip was considered to be a major step in the negotiations. [/QUOTE]
I'm going to laugh until I cry if the Republicans, after all the fearmongering about Clinton and Saudi Arabia and Uranium One, end up giving Saudi Arabia nuclear reactors with no strings attached.