Thirteen employees of the Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency (ABEN) began their training at the School of Nuclear Science and Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Tomsk (TPU).
The training course is carried out under a contract signed in September 2017 by ABEN with Rosatom for the construction of the Nuclear Technology Research and Development Center in El Alto.
The objective is to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to safely operate the Multipurpose Irradiation Plant, which is part of the future center.
The nuclear research center in El Alto is one of a kind because it is located at an altitude of 4,000 meters above sea level. It will provide services to the health system, agriculture, and various industries. It will consist of a cyclotron-radiopharmacy complex, a gamma-ray irradiation plant, a nuclear research reactor, laboratories, and a training center.
The polyvalent experimental reactor will be a pressurized water reactor, with a nominal power of about 200 kilowatts. The executive general director of ABEN, Hortensia Jiménez, notified that the reactor in El Alto “should be operational by 2021.
On July 11, a high-level Bolivian delegation headed by President Evo Morales visited Moscow to meet with the Russian authorities.
The Bolivian leader expressed the hope that the inauguration will be held already in 2020.
