SPECIAL ENVOY WOLCOTT AND EXPERT DELEGATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 KUWAIT 000761

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/10/2018
TAGS: ENRG KNNP PREL PARM
SUBJECT: SPECIAL ENVOY WOLCOTT AND EXPERT DELEGATION
DISCUSS NUCLEAR ENERGY COOPERATION WITH KUWAIT

REF: A. KUWAIT 561

B. STATE 48644

Classified By: Ambassador Deborah Jones for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary and Comment: On June 10, a delegation led by
Ambassador Jackie Wolcott, Special Envoy for Nuclear
Nonproliferation, and including representatives from the
Department of State, the Department of Energy (DOE),the
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA),and the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC),met with officials and
scientists from the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW)
and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) to
discuss possible options for bilateral and/or regional
nuclear energy cooperation. Members of the delegation
presented a broad range of options for U.S. technical
assistance and referred to recent bilateral MOUs for nuclear
cooperation signed with Bahrain, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia.
Wolcott invited the Kuwaitis to Washington for further more
detailed discussions. Officials at MEW asked insightful
questions, expressed appreciation for the early bilateral
consultation, and expressed interest in further discussion,
but cautioned that Kuwait was still in a very early stage of
considering nuclear power and had made no decisions.
Officials and researchers at KISR were generally interested
in technical cooperation and capacity building; but the
Director General emphasized that KISR's role in the nuclear
field is currently limited to environmental monitoring and
emergency planning, mostly in response to Iran's Bushehr
reactor. He said Deputy Director General for Research Dr.
Nader Al-Awadhi, Kuwait's representative to the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) and the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) for nuclear discussions would be KISR's point
of contact for follow-up. After the meetings, Ambassador
Wolcott conducted a brief press roundtable with local
Arabic-language newspapers.


2. (C) Overall, the Kuwaitis seemed interested in exploring
options for nuclear energy cooperation, but they are not
ready to make any firm commitments or decisions in the near
term. Discussions among the GCC members still appear
preliminary and exploratory, and any consideration of Kuwait
launching its own nuclear program seems even more embryonic.
While the GOK clearly wants to keep its options open and to
be kept informed, an MOU signing seems unlikely in the near
future. End Summary and Comment.


USG Team Offers Assistance, Encourages Caution
-------------- --------------


3. (SBU) On June 10, a delegation led by Ambassador Wolcott
and including Alex Burkart, Marc Humphrey, and Ariel Stukalin
from the State Department's Bureau of International Security
and Nonproliferation; Elizabeth Lisann from the Office of
Nuclear Energy at the Department of Energy; John
McClelland-Kerr from the National Nuclear Security
Administration; John Ramsey from the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission; and Andrew Steinfeld from the State Department's
Office of Arabian Peninsula Affairs, met separately with MEW
Under Secretary Yousef Al-Hajri and KISR Director General
Naji Al-Mutairi and their respective staffs to express U.S.
support for the responsible development of civil nuclear
power and to discuss options for possible U.S. nuclear
cooperation with Kuwait and/or the GCC.


4. (SBU) Referring to the Joint Declaration on Nuclear Energy
and Nonproliferation issued jointly by Presidents Bush and
Putin on July 3, 2007, Amb. Wolcott explained that the United
States supports the safe, secure and responsible pursuit of
nuclear power, and seeks to assist interested countries in
pursuing nuclear power programs with the highest standards of
nonproliferation. She emphasized USG support for the
expansion of nuclear power in a responsible way, in contrast
to the manner pursued by Iran in defiance of international
nonproliferation standards. Wolcott added that the USG wants
to ensure that all new nuclear plants are built with the
highest safety and security standards, since an incident
anywhere could inhibit the growth of civil nuclear power
everywhere. She recognized that Kuwait and GCC were still in
a preliminary stage of considering nuclear power but said the
U.S. wants to reach out to the GOK early to offer assistance
in the decision-making process and present an array of
options for possible technical cooperation. Wolcott stressed
the advantages, for countries developing new nuclear power
programs, of obtaining fuel from the international commercial
market as opposed to developing sensitive nuclear fuel cycle
technologies. She added that the U.S. had signed
non-legally-binding Memoranda of Understanding MOUs) for
nuclear energy cooperation with Bahrain in March, UAE in
April, and Saudi Arabia in May, each of which included a

KUWAIT 00000761 002 OF 004


statement of intent to buy fuel from the market in lieu of
acquiring domestic enrichment and reprocessing capacity. She
also informed the Kuwaitis that the delegation would have
subsequent meetings in Qatar. She invited the Kuwaitis to
participate in further more detailed discussions in
Washington.


5. (SBU) Alex Burkart from State recommended the IAEA
milestones document as the most useful tool to help states
make a knowledgeable decision about the feasibility of a
national nuclear energy program. He commended the GOK for
concluding a Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement and an
Additional Protocol with the IAEA, and recommended that the
GOK consider signing on to additional nuclear conventions
(related primarily to safety, security, and liability). He
went on to outline a number of diverse options for bilateral
or multilateral cooperation, including, human resources,
energy planning, nuclear regulation, and other infrastructure
development. Burkart undertook to provide a document
summarizing the types of cooperation available. he noted
that while the U.S. supports technical cooperation projects
under the IAEA, certain types of assistance are more amenable
to cooperation bilaterally or through multinational
partnerships, such as the Global Nuclear energy Partnership
(see below). In the meeting with KISR, Burkart mentioned
that the U.S. was interested in launching a university
exchange program in which one or more foreign universities
would be given virtual access to a research reactor in the
United States for remote training exercises. Dr. Burkart
also summarized the types of formal cooperation agreements
that the United States could enter into, noting that a good
deal of infrastructure-related cooperation could take place
outside a formal agreement framework.


6. (SBU) Elizabeth Lisann from DOE described the Global
Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP),which was launched in 2006
and now includes a total of 21 partner countries. GNEP
currently has two working groups on reliable nuclear fuel
services and infrastructure development, and is establishing
a third on grid-appropriate reactors. One product under
development by the infrastructure working group, Lisann
explained, was a virtual resource library. Lisann added that
partner countries are open to expansion of the group's
membership and would be inviting Kuwait to attend the next
GNEP Ministerial on October 1 in Paris.


7. (SBU) John McClelland-Kerr explained that the NNSA's two
principal areas of cooperation were increased safeguards,
effectiveness and infrastructure development for new nuclear
energy states. He said that NNSA was currently cooperating
with a diverse range of foreign partners in the region
(including Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Egypt) on issues
including energy planning, reactor safety, radiological
surveillance, and human resources development (the greatest
challenge, he noted, facing most countries). McClelland-Kerr
commented that cooperation with NNSA is flexible and focused
on overcoming technical challenges. In the meeting at KISR,
McClelland-Kerr extended an invitation for the GOK to attend
a workshop on nuclear energy development for GCC states, to
be held in Amman in October.


8. (SBU) In response to questions about nuclear energy in the
United States, Jack Ramsey highlighted NRC's thirty years of
experience in nuclear regulation and explained that the U.S.
was home to 104 nuclear power plants out of about 400
worldwide. Ramsey noted that although the NRC had received
no applications for new power plants for twenty years, thirty
new applications were expected between September 2007 to
December 2008. Although there are many plants around the
world, Ramsey commented that there is a good deal of
similarity between designs and that regulation in many
different countries has been greatly facilitated by global
information exchange. If Kuwait were to opt for nuclear
power, he added it could also benefit from such cooperation.
In order to build up indigenous regulatory capacity, the U.S.
could also provide opportunities for short- or long-term
training and professional exchanges.


Electricity Ministry Beginning to Ponder Nuclear Power
-------------- --------------


9. (C) In the meeting at MEW, Under Secretary Al-Hajri
welcomed the offer of cooperation but stressed, "We are at an
early stage and just starting to investigate nuclear energy."
Eng. Hamad Al-Khaledi, Assistant Under Secretary for Water
Operations, said the GOK had thus far only engaged in talks
with the IAEA under the GCC umbrella and had attached the
December 2006 IAEA workshop on "Issues for the Introduction
of Nuclear Power." He said the GCC was carefully exploring
issues of feasibility, location, infrastructure, human

KUWAIT 00000761 003 OF 004


resources, and the fuel cycle. He emphasized that Kuwait was
still "new to the subject" but "wants to do it right" under
the umbrella of international expertise and rules.
Al-Khaledi asked about the status of programs in other
countries in the region to which Dr. Burkart replied that the
UAE was the most active of the GCC countries and was
consulting with an American company, while Egypt had the most
advanced nuclear infrastructure program among Arab countries.


10. (C) Dr. Meshan Al-Otaibi, Assistant Under Secretary for
Planning and Training and a former GOK envoy to the IAEA,
asked what factors should be considered in deciding on the
location for a nuclear plant. Ramsey acknowledged that there
was no simple answer, but said seismic activity, proximity to
a water source, environmental considerations, and proximity
to population centers were some of the important factors.
Al-Otaibi then asked if it would be possible to import power
produced by nuclear plants in neighboring countries through
an interconnected grid. Burkart said there were numerous
examples of this in Europe, with France exporting power to
many of its neighbors, and Austria importing power from the
Czech Republic. Ramsy added that Lithuania, Latvia, and
Estonia were also considering a regional approach, and that
even in the U.S. much of the electricity generated in the
south is transmitted thousands of kilometers to consumers in
the north. Steinfeld encouraged the GOK to consider a
regional nuclear power program (e.g., within the GCC).


11. (C) Eng. Ahmad Al-Jassar, Assistant Under Secretary for
Power Station and Water Distillation Projects asked if the
new generation of new reactors was safer. In response,
Ramsey explained that the safety of the latest (third)
generation of nuclear reactors had benefited greatly from
lessons learned from previous generations. The first third
generation reactors, he noted, would be built in China,
Finland, France, and the United States.


12. (C) Under Secretary Al-Hajri asked if there were other
uses of peaceful nuclear technology. Ramsey replied that
nuclear power can be used for desalination, and that this had
been demonstrated in the former Soviet Union. (Note: Kuwait
struggles to produce enough water to meet its rapidly growing
demand. Desalinated seawater from the Gulf makes up more than
95 percent of the country's water supply. End note.)

KISR Engaged with GCC, IAEA; Open to Further Talks
-------------- --------------


13. (C) Following an introduction by Ambassador Wolcott,
Director General Al-Mutairi opened the discussion at KISR by
saying that the Institute's main objective is to protect
against ionizing radiation, and that its activities in the
nuclear field is therefore focused on environmental
monitoring, radionuclide mapping, and emergency preparedness.
Al-Mutairi said KISR has only been engaged in these
activities for four years, and was still in the capacity
building phase. In response to a question about the
motivation behind these interests, the Kuwaiti side noted
that Iran's Bushehr reactor was sighted directly across the
Gulf from Kuwait, and that this led to safety-related
environmental concerns.


14. (C) Al-Mutairi said KISR's Deputy Director General for
Research, Dr. Nader Al-Awadhi (who was unable to participate
because he had meetings at the IAEA in Vienna),is the GOK's
representative to GCC for nuclear discussions. Al-Mutairi
said several meetings had been held in the past year among
GCC representatives in Riyadh and at the IAEA in Vienna
(noting that the Agency was being viewed as a "consulting
agency"). He said the GCC was proceeding very cautiously and
had not yet made any decisions about whether to build a
reactor or where to site one, though the group had agreed at
its last meeting on "12 items" to be completed prior to
moving forward. He remarked, "A lot of this is politics;
some of it is science. We'll focus on the science." He
added that should the GOK or GCC decide to build a nuclear
plant, U.S. experience and expertise could be very helpful.


15. (C) Al-Mutairi proudly stated that KISR wants to be a
regional center of excellence, particularly in regards to
calibration and instrumentation. He noted that, although its
current focus was on environmental monitoring, KISR would be
the body entrusted to analyze scientific and technical issues
for the GOK as the GCC moved towards nuclear power. He
commented that the Institute would be most interested in
human resources development and training, collaboration under
the NNSA "sister laboratories" program, and assistance with
regulatory capacity development. More generally, the Kuwaiti
side resonated with the idea of developing relationships with
U.S.labs. Al-Mutairi also noted that Kuwait had sent a
representative to the GNEP Steering Group meeting in Jordan

KUWAIT 00000761 004 OF 004


in May. Al-Mutairi, who has been Director General for
slightly less than a year, added that he would be finalizing
KISR's long-term strategic plan over the next nine months,
which he expected to include a KD 817 million (USD 3.06
billion) budget for the next five years. He said he hoped
for more discussions on nuclear cooperation in the near
future to help him determine whether additional nuclear
research programs should be included in the long-term plan.


16. (C) Al-Mutairi was joined in the meeting by Deputy
Director General Dr. Mohammad Salman, Coastal and Air
Pollution Department Director Dr. Mane Al-Sederawi, Advanced
Systems Department Director Engineer Hani Qasem, and Doctors
Jaroslav Jakes and Michael Quinn from the Urban Development
Division of the Advanced Systems Department. All of the
directors and researchers expressed interest in further
discussions on technical cooperation and capacity building.
Dr. Jakes noted that KISR had previously collaborated
successfully with DOE's Sandia National Laboratories in a
radiation measurements cross calibration Project in October
2004, and that would welcome new research collaboration
(citing a particular interest in reactors and fuels, safety
and security, nuclear forsenics, and illicit trafficking).
He also expressed an interest in acquiring a "school type"
critical assembly for research and training.

Press
--------------


17. (U) After the meetings, Ambassador Wolcott conducted a
brief press roundtable with reporters from six local
Arabic-language newspapers. She explained the purpose of her
visit to Kuwait and the U.S. commitment to support the
development of civilian nuclear energy programs that meet the
highest standards of safety, security, and transparency.
Besides nuclear energy cooperation, the reporters' questions
focused on Iran's nuclear program, Israel's nuclear program,
the dangers of residual depleted uranium munitions, and
efforts to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of
terrorists.


18. (U) Ambassador Wolcott cleared on this message.

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For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s

Visit Kuwait's Classified Website:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/
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JONES