Despite environmental and public health concerns, Bolivia’s government is starting construction in March of a US$300 million nuclear research center, part of a plan to employ nuclear technologies for everything from energy to medicine and agriculture. The government set the stage for the project last October, when it signed a memorandum with Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear corporation, to build the research center. The project is one component of a larger, $2 billion plan to establish a series of nuclear facilities by 2025, including a research reactor to train personnel, an irradiation plant to kill bacteria in exported foods and a cyclotron for use in nuclear medicine. Ultimately, the government intends to build nuclear power plants with Russian and Argentine technology and expertise, which... [Log in to read more]