Bolivian Energy Ministry To Inspect Documents On Rosatom's Suspended Nuclear Project

Muhammad Irfan Published February 13, 2020 | 11:20 PM

The Bolivian Energy Ministry has requested information from the national Nuclear Energy Agency (ABEN) to inspect the recently suspended joint project with Russia's Rosatom on the construction of a nuclear research facility in the city of El Alto, Energy Minister Alvaro Rodrigo Guzman said on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th February, 2020) The Bolivian Energy Ministry has requested information from the national Nuclear Energy Agency (ABEN) to inspect the recently suspended joint project with Russia's Rosatom on the construction of a nuclear research facility in the city of El Alto, Energy Minister Alvaro Rodrigo Guzman said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, ABEN issued a statement saying the Bolivian government was suspending the project until the parliament and prosecutor's office "have spoken on the matter." Rosatom, in turn, told Sputnik it had not received any official notification yet and that the company continued to work on the nuclear project.

"Today, we requested that we be sent as soon as possible all the information available in the directorate of the Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency, all legal and technical reports, data on the progress made, and financial reports on projects, so that together with the working group .

.. we could make a decision on what will be done," Guzman was quoted as saying by the Bolivian ABI news agency.

The minister did not rule out the possibility of conducting an audit and launching legal proceedings.

"As soon as we have all this documentation, and clearly understand what is happening with the construction under these projects ... we will say whether construction work will continue," Guzman said, as quoted by the media outlet, adding that an official statement would be made by next week.

Rosatom's subsidiary and ABEN signed the contract for the nuclear research facility in 2017. The head of Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, told Sputnik in November, following a change of power in Bolivia, that the company did not expect the project to be impacted over the political changes.