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The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep111: 1/2 Henry Sokolski states that Saudi Crown Prince MBS's goal is to obtain a bomb option, and while the new US-Saudi agreement does not include assistance with nuclear fuel production, a reactor still provides the necessary "cover" used by countries like I

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

News, Arts, Books, Society & Culture

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

1/2 Henry Sokolski states that Saudi Crown Prince MBS's goal is to obtain a bomb option, and while the new US-Saudi agreement does not include assistance with nuclear fuel production, a reactor still provides the necessary "cover" used by countries like Iran. MBS has made clear he will acquire a bomb if Iran does, regardless of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Sokolski also discusses the US military's Janus program for small reactors, initially conceived for vulnerable front-line bases but pushed back to remote areas like Alaska and the lower 48 due to concerns about drones and vulnerability. Finally, the US may be moving toward nuclear socialism—government ownership of commercial reactors, potentially funded by Japan—to encourage commercialization even without secured market contracts.
1919



Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:24.6

The home of your kind of cozy, Denelm. The home of homes.

0:33.6

This is CBS Eye on the World.

0:38.6

Here's John Batchelor.

0:40.5

Nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, proliferation.

0:44.9

I welcome my colleague Henry Sikovsky, the executive director of the Non-Proliferation Policy Education Center, the headline in these last days.

0:54.6

PBS.

0:56.1

Trump and MBS, Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia,

1:01.1

unveil U.S. Saudi ventures on rare earth minerals and nuclear energy.

1:07.4

I welcome my colleague, Henry Sikolsky, who appeared on this PBS program of some days past,

1:14.3

asked to participate because there are interpretations of what nuclear energy mean to different actors.

1:23.3

It's the possibility of a nuclear weapon.

1:27.0

When Henry was asked on the program, and you can go to the transcript,

1:31.8

what does all this mean?

1:33.6

He was blunt in the first sentence.

1:36.7

They, the Saudis, won a bomb option.

1:40.7

Henry, a very good evening to you.

1:42.0

I'm glad you told the American people what we've been discussing

1:45.1

here for some months, which is a nuclear energy power plant, is a predicate for a nuclear

1:52.4

weapon if there are bad actors controlling the enrichment process and the spent fuel afterwards.

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