White House rolls out a multibillion-dollar US-UAE nuclear deal … then deletes it
The White House announced a historic multibillion-dollar partnership between Holtec and United Arab Emirates' investment giant IHC to build a fleet of small nuclear reactors, but that's been difficult to verify.
According to a Friday email sent by the White House's Office of Communications, the deal would see Abu Dhabi's International Holding Co. (IHC) commit up to $30 billion to deploy Holtec International's SMR-300 small modular reactor technology globally — a gargantuan sum, even for the nuclear industry. The announcement came alongside a broader suite of $200 billion in U.S.-UAE commercial deals.
The original White House email read: 'Holtec International and IHC Industrial Holding Company (IHC) are entering cooperation to build a fleet of Holtec's SMR-300 small modular reactors, starting at the Palisades site in Michigan. This agreement includes a commitment of $10 billion, and an additional $20 billion for fleet projects, helping to revitalize American nuclear energy infrastructure, strengthen domestic energy security, and create high-skilled jobs in engineering, construction, and advanced manufacturing across the United States.'
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But the veracity of the announcement is unclear. The email was sent at 3:01 p.m., but at 4:09 p.m. on Friday, the White House website's fact sheet — with otherwise identical information and verbiage — did not include anything about a Holtec-IHC partnership. And Holtec did not confirm the details laid out by the White House.
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