In March 2016, Russia and Bolivia signed an agreement on cooperation on the construction of the centre at a site in the city of El Alto, western Bolivia. In September 2017, the Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency and JSC State Specialised Design Institute, a subsidiary of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, signed a contract for construction.
The research centre will include a water-cooled research reactor with nominal power of up to 200 kW, an experimental gamma-installation, a cyclotron and radiopharmacology complex, engineering facilities and various laboratories.
Rosatom said the cyclotron and radiopharmacy complex and a multipurpose irradiation centre will be commissioned by the end of 2021, while the research reactor, a “key element”, is scheduled for completion in 2024.
Russia’s state news agency Tass has said the project would be fully funded by Bolivia.
The commissioning of the centre’s first facilities had been scheduled for 2019. In 2014 then-president Evo Morales reaffirmed plans for the country to embark on a nuclear energy programme, saying the project would include the construction of commercial power reactors.
Work resumed at the centre following the landslide election of a new government in October 2020 which saw Luis Arce of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party elected president in a landslide. Mr Arce is an ally of former president Evo Morales, who was forced into exile in November 2019. Mr Morales had allocated more than $350m for construction of the centre.
Rosatom said the project is “unique” for the nuclear industry because the research centre will be 4,000 metres above sea level, making it the highest nuclear facility in the world.
The centre will be used to produce radiopharmaceuticals, carry out more than 5,000 cancer diagnostics and treatment procedures per year, perform radiation treatment of agricultural products, and help train qualified personnel for the nuclear industry.
