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The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep181: Saudi Uranium Enrichment and Proliferation Risks: Colleague Henry Sokolski discusses the risks of allowing Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium, fearing it creates a bomb-making option, warning that making exceptions for Saudi Arabia could trigger a proliferati

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Books, News, Society & Culture, Arts

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Saudi Uranium Enrichment and Proliferation Risks: Colleague Henry Sokolski discusses the risks of allowing Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium, fearing it creates a bomb-making option, warning that making exceptions for Saudi Arabia could trigger a proliferation cascade among neighbors like Turkey and Egypt, undermining global non-proliferation efforts amidst rising tensions involving Russia and NATO.
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Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm John Batchew with Henry Sikolsky, the Executive Director of the Narmiterate

0:08.2

and No-Reliferation Policy Education Center, and in the conversations that I've had with Henry

0:12.3

for the last several years, it often comes to nuclear weapons. They're the piece of the puzzle

0:19.0

that are not easily solved.

0:21.6

They're not solved at all when it comes to war.

0:24.4

You note that Mr. Putin routinely mentions nuclear weapons

0:28.4

or the booster rockets that can deliver multiple nuclear weapons to the U.S.

0:34.3

Whenever there's a low point for him in the Ukraine conflict.

0:38.3

Nuclear weapons are now commonplacedly talked about at NATO.

0:42.7

NATO having slipped into a peaceful status since the 20th century is now alarmed

0:48.4

so much so that the General Secretary of NATO is predicting on the front pages of the European

0:53.7

paper right now that after Ukraine,

0:55.7

Russia will attack NATO. He says it out loud. The people of the Baltic states are digging in.

1:01.5

They're building a Maginot Line underground from the Gulf of Finland to the Sevalchi gap.

1:07.2

That's happening right now. That's not theory. And implicit in all of this is that nuclear

1:12.7

weapons are in the hands of our enemies and it can easily be used against us. So, Henry, I go to

1:19.2

the facts about Saudi Arabia. You and I have talked about it. That visit by the Crown Prince

1:25.4

to Washington was embraced by Mr. Trump and his

1:29.0

administration for reasons to do with state policy. I understand that. But it is consistent that

1:36.0

Saudi Arabia wants nuclear power, many of the nuclear power plants that are available,

1:41.8

new built. It also wants the power to enrich fuel for those plants,

1:47.7

and that means that there will be spent fuel, and that means the possibility of using the

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