Russia signs intergovernmental agreements to promote peaceful nuclear technology in Bolivia

Bolivia and Russia recently entered into two Intergovernmental Agreements on nuclear power, one promoting cooperation on peaceful uses of atomic energy and one focusing on the construction of a Nuclear Research and Technology Center in Bolivia.

“Today Rosatom is the only company in the world that proposes the integrated approach to its customers,” Rosatom Director General Sergey Kirienko said. “Besides the construction of the center and research reactor for our Bolivian partners, we will also provide training for future specialists, equip laboratories and arrange nuclear fuel supplies.”

The agreements, which were signed by Kirienko and Bolivia’s Hydrocarbons and Energy Minister Luis Alberto Sanchez, in the presence of Bolivian President Evo Morales, will see the Latin American country better able to use nuclear technology in science, medicine, geology and agriculture and other applications. The center, which will be located in El Alto, will be the highest altitude nuclear facility in the world at 4,100 meters above sea level.

“This will be the most advanced center in Latin America with the most advanced equipment,” Kirienko said. “Apart from the nuclear science development, the center will make it possible to save hundreds of thousands of lives from various serious diseases.”