This deal is controversial.
The reason why the US is doing this is two-fold. It has a commercial interest, because American firms are going to make money out of it.
But partly it’s to keep Saudi Arabia within its strategic sphere of interest.
The United Arab Emirates got the South Koreans to help them in this area, as well as the US.
If Washington turned down a Saudi request for help with their civil nuclear programme then the Saudis could turn to the Chinese to help them.
Saudi Arabia already has a nascent civil nuclear programme, and its big regional rival just across the Gulf is the Islamic Republic of Iran which, as we know, has a very advanced one.
This deal comes as a war is raging nearby in the Gulf and many countries are saying to Iran, you can’t enrich your own uranium or you can’t be trusted to.
The fear is that if Saudi Arabia starts enriching its own uranium, that could just encourage hardliners in Iran to secretly race to build a bomb in secret.
It could also, potentially, trigger a nuclear arms race in the region with Egypt and Turkey stepping up their own programmes.
