In the picture
Interior of a nuclear reactor of research [Lseaveratnif].
The construction of the research nuclear reactor that Bolivia is carrying out in El Alto, with the Russian company Rosatom, has accelerated its execution plan since the vessel that will house the reactor itself was installed last summer. Initially scheduled to be commissioned by the end of 2023, its inauguration has been postponed until 2025. The project is sample of the good relationship of the MAS Government with Russia and of the interest of this country in Bolivia, where it is also securing the exploitation of lithium.
Evo Morales' interest in the 'nuclearization' of Bolivia (understood as access to the technology of the atom, not as development of the nuclear weapon) began shortly after he came to power. In 2010 he announced the intention to build a nuclear plant to produce and export energy, to be carried out with Iran's financial aid in exchange for selling to that country any uranium that might exist in Bolivia. This was part of the 'Bolivarianism' program: Hugo Chavez also shared the same plans in Venezuela at the time (in reality it was a 'follower' of Morales). However, the idea was immediately truncated in both places by alluding to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Morales kept, anyway, the nuclear purpose and later, with a partner less problematic than Iran and a facility reduced to a research reactor (not a higher power plant for electricity production) went ahead with the project, now with Russia. Thus, Morales and Vladimir Putin signed in March 2016 a agreement for nuclear cooperation; to develop it the following month the Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency (ABEN) was created. In 2017, the ABEN signed a contract with Rosatom, the large Russian nuclear company, for the construction of the research center and Nuclear Technology (CNRT), with an expected initial cost of $300 million. Its location, finally decided in El Alto, next to La Paz, will make it the highest nuclear facility on the planet, at an altitude of 4,000 meters. In 2019 both presidents reaffirmed their partnership in this field.
From agreement with ABEN, the project consists of several parts: a research nuclear reactor of leave power (200 kilowatts of thermal power), moderated and cooled by light water; the Preclinical Radiopharmacy Cyclotron Complex; the Multipurpose Radiation Center; and a nuclear research laboratory and training. This is a subject complex that many countries have and is usually supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The agency specifies that the nuclear reactors at research "are facilities designed to study and develop nuclear applications for scientific and technological purposes" -therefore, not military-, and indicates that the goal "is to develop nuclear applications for peaceful purposes, with social and environmental responsibility". The facilities will have three applications: the development of nuclear medicine (for example, with the development of radioisotopes to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer), the use of irradiation in the agricultural sector (food preservation and the control of pests, bacteria and diseases) and the scientific research .
The project was slow to start being implemented mainly due to the country's institutional instability. Since a 2016 referendum rejected the possibility of a new reelection of Morales there was uncertainty about the Bolivian political future. Morales opted for a reelection in principle illegal, but after the vote and apparent evidence of fraud he had to leave power, giving way to a year of interim in which the civil service examination governed . MAS returned to government at the end of 2020 with Luis Arce as president and it was then that construction could begin. Construction began in 2021 under the direction of Rosatom, and shortly thereafter the radiopharmaceutical production line could be tested. The entire project was scheduled for completion by the end of 2023, but completion has been postponed until 2025.
In May 2023, at position , specialists from the Russian Institute of Nuclear Reactors research , which is part of Rosatom, carried out tests in Dimitrovgrad on the reactor to be installed in El Alto (SM-3 of 200kWr), in order to verify the correct operation of the different elements of the process, before proceeding to its progressive transfer to Bolivia. In August Rosatom installed in El Alto the first component, the vessel that will house the reactor, and in October selected 53 Bolivian professional candidates to be trained in Russia at management for nuclear reactors. The Rosatom Technical Academy, in charge of this training, considers that one of the challenges of this subject project is the lack of skill in the nations at development and the difficulty in the transmission of knowledge due to the barrier of language.
Interests beyond medicine and agriculture
Russia's interest in Bolivia lies not only in obtaining economic benefits from the sale of nuclear technology for research, but also in the influence it can exert on a South American government with few sympathies towards the United States. But Moscow also has a particular interest in being able to exploit lithium, since Bolivia is the country with the largest reserves of this mineral in the world. Unlike Argentina and Chile, countries with which it forms the so-called 'lithium triangle' - due to the singularities of the Andean Altiplano and the Atacama Desert - Bolivia has not been involved in this sector due to lack of financing and is now opening up to foreign companies. The first concessions have gone to Chinese and Russian companies. One of them is Uranium One Group, which is part of Rosatom and is also present in the lithium business. This company and the state-owned Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos agreed to build an industrial complex in the Pastos Grandes salt flat for the extraction and production of this mineral. Rosatom is also bidding for other licenses in the Potosí and Oruro regions.
From the United States it is suspected that when Morales promoted the project there was the intention of Bolivia acquiring control of the complete cycle of the atom, although without going beyond its peaceful uses. The initial purpose of a nuclear power plant, when Bolivia has within its reach energy independence by other means (abundant hydrocarbons and hydrological capacities, as well as ample renewable energy options), suggested that intention. Now it will be able to move in that direction, although its specialists will remain at an intermediate stage (uranium enrichment for medical use is very low).
In this context, the U.S. Southern Command publication highlights the partnership between La Paz and Moscow, which has become more intense in recent years. Bolivia has avoided condemnation of Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and has come out publicly in defense of Putin on several occasions.