Chavez Says Venezuela and Russia Will Build a Nuclear Reactor in Oil-Rich Zulia
CARACAS -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said that his country and
Russia intend to build a nuclear reactor in the oil-rich state of
Zulia.
"A nuclear reactor, to produce energy for peaceful
purposes, will soon be built in the state of Zulia and named in honor
of the Venezuelan scientist of the last century Humberto Fernandez
Moran," Chavez told supporters in Maracaibo, the capital of Zulia state.
"Brazil has several nuclear reactors, as does Argentina. We will also have our own reactor," the president said.
Chavez,
speaking at a campaign event in Venezuela's second largest city said
that the contract for the nuclear complex would be among the treaties
that will be signed during the visit to Caracas of Russian President
Dimitri Medvedev later this month.
Chavez said that the
nuclear complex would be called "Humberto Fernandez Moran", to be named
after the Zulia-born scientist who developed the Venezuelan Institute
of Scientific Research (IVIC) and was responsible for bringing
Venezuela's (and Latin America's) first small nuclear reactor from the
U.S. in the 1950s. Fernandez Moran was forced to leave the country in
1958 for having collaborated with the military rule of Marcos Perez
Jimenez, under whom he was a Minister of Science and Education.
Fernandez Moran contributed to the development of the electron
microscope and was the first person to use the concept of
cryoultramicrotomy — superfreezing and slicing ultra-thin samples, for
which he also
developed the diamond blade — for examination under
the electron microscope. He also worked on the concept of electronic
cryomicroscopy, the use of superconducting lenses of liquid helium in
electronic microscopes.
After exiling from Venezuela, Fernandez
Moran worked for NASA on the Apollo Project and taught at Harvard, MIT,
the University of Chicago and the University of Stockholm.
Strengthening Ties with Russia
Chavez
revealed that Venezuelan and Russian technical teams have already been
working on the nuclear project in preparation for Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev's visit later this month.
Venezuela has
strengthened ties with Russia under Chavez, purchasing more than $4
billion in Russian weapons since 2005. Coinciding with Medvedev's visit
to Venezuela and Cuba, a Russian naval task force led by Russia's
newest and most powerful nuclear cruiser, Peter the Great, will be off
Venezuela for maneuvers, marking the first visits of Russian warships
to the region since the end of the Cold War.
Chavez campaigning intensely for governors and local candidates, especially in Zulia
Chavez
made the nuclear announcement in Zulia, where he was campaigning for
his candidates for governor and other local offices. On Sunday some 17
million registered voters will go to 11,500 voting centers to elect 22
governors, 328 mayors, and 233 regional legislators — a total of 603
positions.
It is the fourth time since these local election
campaigns began in late August that Chavez has stumped for his
candidates in Zulia, in the far northwest of the country. The
persistent presence of Chavez in the state is part of the enormous
effort he has made to prop up or push the candidates of his political
party PSUV.
Zulia is the most important oil producing region
in the country, and produces approximately 1.5 million barrels a day,
even 80 years after U.S. oil workers drilled the Los Barroso gusher
there — the first major oil find in Venezuela.