When experts discuss the prospects of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), they naturally focus on impending events. Will nonaligned nations tie their continued adherence to reaching a comprehensive test ban? Will North Korea, Algeria, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Japan, and Iran live up to their NPT obligations? Will some follow through on their threats to withdraw from the treaty? Is China, which is building more nuclear weapons and refused to agree to limit them, in violation of the treaty’s demand that nuclear weapons states limit their nuclear arms? Will the NPT’s inspectorate, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), strengthen its inspection procedures? Can certain nuclear materials and activities ever be reliably inspected to detect and prevent their military diversion? The answers to these questions will determine not only the future of the NPT but the prospects for nuclear restraint.
Last week, controversy over precisely what the terms are of the U.S.-Saudi civilian nuclear cooperative agreement generated national headlines. Some of its provisions still are not yet public; others reportedly have been redacted. At least as worrisome as the agreement’s unknown terms is how safe it might be to build U.S. reactors […]
September 4, 2026 John Batchelor-NPEC show clarifies what documents the Trump administration has made available to the public on the US –Saudi nuclear deal & what’s been kept under wraps & why & reviews the bidding on reported U.S. attacks that have killed innocent Iranians. […]
Early last week, President Trump sent his Saudi nuclear cooperative agreement to Capitol Hill. The agreement will come into force by year’s end unless Congress opposes or amends it. Here’s the rub, though: it’s unclear if Congress has received all that the Administration agreed to […]
August 28, 2026 John Batchelor interview with Henry Sokolski spotlights how Iran could get hundreds of bombs’ worth of plutonium from Bushehr; why Musk shouldn’t make critical military decisions regarding Starlink; how accurate Trump’s estimate is that North Korea has 57 nuclear bombs; how Russia […]
August 21, 2026 John Batchelor interview with Henry Sokolski examines a neglected second path for Iran to get nuclear weapons: plutonium stored at the Bushehr plant. Henry Sokolski warns that while nuclear negotiations focus heavily on Iran’s uranium, Iran has a neglected second path to […]
Today marks the last day of America’s 60-day memorandum of understanding with Iran, which featured several nuclear provisions. Among those was an Iranian pledge not to “procure or develop nuclear weapons.” The rub, of course, is how to make sure Iran lives up to this […]
August 14, 2026 John Batchelor interview with Henry Sokolski looks at the bidding with NPEC on the Golden Dome’s possible missions, why confusion regarding its top priority is worrisome, why Musk’s enthusiasm for solar is warranted, and how to think about the Mecca Pact. John […]
Last week, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee raised a number of nuclear nonproliferation concerns about the U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear cooperative agreement and stated that Congress had an obligation to review the pact carefully. As I note below, in the op-ed “The […]
August 7, 2026 John Batchelor interview with Henry Sokolski discusses the stalled nuclear cooperative agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, noting that the lack of enrichment restrictions has left the deal in limbo. He explains that a new condominium between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and […]
Two weeks ago, President Trump was about to send the Hill a U.S.-Saudi nuclear cooperative agreement. After a torrent of criticism from Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, though, he changed his mind and insisted that the United States would […]
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