Russia’s atomic energy agency said on Tuesday it has signed a deal to build a nuclear-research reactor in Burma, whose military rulers have been criticised by the West for repressive and undemocratic practices.
The centre will include a 10MW nuclear reactor with low enriched uranium consisting of less than 20% uranium-235, the atomic energy agency, known as Rosatom, said.
”This agreement provides for cooperation in the design and construction in [Burma] of a centre for nuclear research,” Rosatom said in a statement.
It said the research centre will be under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Russia, along with China, has become a major supporter and supplier of arms to Burma’s junta since the West imposed sanctions in late 1988.
Last year China and Russia vetoed a United States-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution urging Burma to stop persecution and release political prisoners.
Burma has recently repaired ties with North Korea, damaged when a North Korean bomb in 1983 killed South Korean ministers visiting Burma. The US considers North Korea a rogue state and wants it to abandon its nuclear-arms programme.
A 2004 research paper by the Australian National University said Burma had asked Russia in 2000 for help in starting a nuclear civilian programme but that Moscow backed out of the plan in 2003.
Russia is already building a nuclear power station in Iran, suspected by the US of seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Russia says Iran has a right to civilian nuclear power.
The military has run Burma since 1962, ignoring a 1990 landslide election victory by Aung San Suu Kyi, opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has been under house arrest ever since. — Reuters