Rabat | Friday
THE United States and Morocco signed an agreement on Thursday paving the way for the construction of the north African country’s first nuclear reactor.
The document completes an earlier 1980 accord and establishes a legal basis for building the reactor, at Morocco’s National Centre of Nuclear Energy, Sciences and Technology, in Mamora, 15 kilometres east of the capital Rabat.
A US source said the signing had been approved by US President George Bush on August 31.
The reactor would provide a solid base for Morocco’s entry into nuclear technology and include training for its engineers, said US Ambassador to Morocco Margaret Tutwiler.
She explained that the reactor would be built by the US company, General Atomics, which she described as a leader in the design of reactors for scientific research.
It would also, she added, contribute to research on nuclear medicine and have other industrial and agricultural applications.
It is hoped to have the reactor, which has a capacity of two megawatts, operational next year. – AFP