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Agreement on Bolivia’s nuclear research center may be signed at SPIEF

Bolivia’s first nuclear research institute will be built in the city of El Alto at an altitude of 4,100 meters above sea level and the country plans to allocate $300 million for this project
A view of Bolivia EPA/Martin Alipaz
A view of Bolivia
© EPA/Martin Alipaz

MOSCOW, May 31. /TASS/. An agreement on construction of a nuclear research center in Bolivia may be signed at the Petersburg International Economic Forum due to be held in June 2016, Kirill Komarov, the first deputy CEO of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, said on Tuesday.

"We are set for very serious work. Soon, we plan to sign an agreement on the project implementation, to sign an agreement on the site examination," he said. "It is not ruled out that some of our documents will be signed in a span of two weeks, at the Petersburg Economic Forum."

Earlier, Bolivia’s First Deputy Minister of Energy Joaquin Rodriguez Guti·rrez said the construction of a nuclear research center in Bolivia’s El Alto is expected to be completed by the end of 2019. He said the implementation of this project is "a big step forward" for Bolivia. "We will be able to use all the advantages of nuclear energy in the interests of our people," he stressed.

Russia and Bolivia signed intergovernmental agreements on cooperation in the area of peaceful use of nuclear energy and on cooperation in the construction of a nuclear research and technology center on March 6.

The center will be equipped with a test multipurpose gamma-ray unit on the basis of a research light water-cooled and moderated reactor with a capacity of up to 200 kilowatt, a cyclotron, an engineering unit and a loboratory unit. The reactor for the would-be center will be developed at Russia’s Dollezhal NIKIET research and design institute of energy equipment.

According to earlier reports, Bolivia plans to allocate $300 million for this project. Bolivia’s first nuclear research institute will be built in the city of El Alto at an altitude of 4,100 meters above sea level.

The project will help Bolivia to develop nuclear technologies to be used in the research sector, in medicine, geology and agriculture.

Founded in 1997, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is a major annual economy-related event in Russia that brings together country leaders, finance ministers, experts, top executives of Russian and foreign companies who discuss economic problems facing Russia and markets of developing countries. It is attended annually by up to 10,000 guests from more than 70 world countries. The forum is also a platform for signing major contracts. Thus, the overall sum of contracts signed on the forum’s sidelines in 2014 was 401.4 billion rubles (over six billion U.S. dollars under the current exchange rate). The Russian president has been attending this forum since 2005.

The previous forum took place in St. Petersburg on June 18-20, 2015. The 20th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum will held in Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg on June 16 through June 18, 2016. Russia’s Roscongress state-run fund that was established last year will host the forum. Key topics for discussion will include a new economic reality and new sources for growth.