It’s Rather Hard to Fathom

Bolivia ‘to build first nuclear reactor’

Evo Morales, a former coca leaf producer, is Bolivia’s first president with an indigenous background

Bolivian President Evo Morales has announced plans to build the country’s first nuclear reactor.

Mr Morales said the development of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes has become a strategic priority for his country.

Speaking to members of the Bolivian Congress, he said that Iran, France and Argentina had volunteered to help with the development of the project.

Only three countries in Latin America have operating nuclear power stations.

Brazil, Argentina and Mexico began their nuclear programmes in the 1970s.

Chile has only small-scale, experimental nuclear reactors.

“Bolivia cannot remain excluded from this technology, which belongs to all humankind,” Mr Morales said in his annual state of the union address in La Paz.

“We have decided to create a high-level energy commission. This is a priority of the Bolivian state,” he said.

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Opinion:

It’s rather hard to fathom after all that has happened at Fukushima (and that is not over yet) that anyone, or any country would want to bring more nuclear power to the southern hemisphere.

I don’t know where they plan to build a nuclear reactor, but much of Bolivia is high in the Andes and beset by the same earthquake problem as Japan.

Men may be mad, but politicians are absolutely crazy!