WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama gave official backing to an agreement allowing the U.S. to share nuclear technology with the United Arab Emirates, part of his broader push to promote and better manage nuclear power globally.
The agreement, if it passes through Congress, could mean billions of dollars for American power companies competing to build the U.A.E.'s first fleet of nuclear reactors. General Electric Co. and Westinghouse Electric Co. are among the U.S.-based firms that have submitted bids for the Emirates' nuclear program, according to industry officials.
The Obama administration touts the U.A.E. agreement as a model for the peaceful development of nuclear power internationally. Abu Dhabi has agreed to extensive United Nations inspections of its nuclear facilities and says it will buy nuclear fuel from international suppliers.
The U.A.E. has renounced its right to enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium, which minimizes the risk of nuclear materials being diverted for military purposes, according to U.S. officials.
Washington has pledged to assist countries in developing civilian nuclear programs if they commit to these conditions. U.S. officials call the U.A.E. program a counterexample to Iran's, which they see as aimed at producing nuclear weapons, although Tehran says its program is peaceful.
Mr. Obama said Wednesday he determined that the U.A.E. agreement "will promote, and will not constitute an unreasonable risk to, the common defense and security" of the U.S. Former President George W. Bush signed the U.A.E. agreement during his last week in office, but agreed to allow Mr. Obama to determine whether to send it to Congress.
Mr. Obama at first planned to sign the deal last month, aides said. But a number of lawmakers voiced concern, particularly following the airing on U.S. television networks of a video showing an Abu Dhabi sheikh brutally beating an Afghan businessman. Some lawmakers argued Abu Dhabi doesn't have enough legal safeguards against leakage of nuclear technologies.
U.S. officials said they viewed the nuclear agreement and the video as separate issues. The Obama administration has praised the legal infrastructure Abu Dhabi is developing in support of its nuclear program as well its close cooperation with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Once the State Department submits the U.A.E. legislation to Congress, lawmakers will have 90 days to amend or seek to kill it. Some U.S. representatives, including Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican vice chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, have said they will fight it. Some say the deal could spark a nuclear arms race across the Mideast.
Administration and industry officials say opposition is limited, and they said they expect the bill to become law by September.
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