“Their commitment, dedication and talent represent the future we need to promote development and innovation in Bolivia,” President Luis Arce said yesterday on social media, assuring that the country is moving forward with determination towards technological sovereignty.
Bolivia is preparing the transportation to the city of El Alto of the technological equipment for the RB-01 reactor, which should come into operation in mid-2025,when it will begin to develop nuclear scientific research. It will be located more than four thousand meters above sea level, making it the reactor of its type installed at the highest altitude in the world.
An institutional note from the Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency (ABEN) confirmed on September 23rd that all the components are at the Santa Cruz airport, and in the next few days they will be transported to El Alto, where the Center for Research and Development in Nuclear Technology (CIDTN) is being built, which, according to President Arce, will be completed after the delivery of the RB-01 reactor.
According to the statement, highly qualified human resources will also be trained at the facilities to form a national scientific community.
The work was conceived to carry out applications in the health, mining, water resource management, and agriculture sectors, and, according to ABEN, due to its unique characteristics, the studies carried out at the RB-01 reactor will be an important contribution to science and technology on a global scale.
Bolivia is part of the Regional Cooperation Agreement for the Promotion of Nuclear Science and Technology in Latin America and the Caribbean, which aims at joint and coordinated work in this area for the benefit of the population.
Bolivia has a contract with the Russian corporation Rosatom for construction, equipment and human resources training to launch the Cidtn, which consists of four components: the Preclinical Radiopharmacy Cyclotron Complex; the Multipurpose Irradiation Complex, which are already in operation; the Radioecology and Radiobiology laboratories, which will soon become operational; and the Nuclear Research Reactor Complex, which is in its construction and assembly phase.
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