Russia’s atomic agency Rosatom has resumed construction at Bolivia’s Nuclear Research Center, with some operations set to begin at the end of this year.

The research center is being built in the city of El Alto, 4,000 meters above sea level, and will be the highest in the world to host nuclear facilities.

Rosatom’s first deputy director general, Kirill Komarov, said: ‘A lot has already been done. This year, the Cyclotron Radiopharmacy Preclinical Complex and the Multipurpose Irradiation Center will go into operation.’

He said the center will help ‘drastically improve cancer diagnostics and treatment’ in Bolivia, and can also be used to sterilize medical equipment during the pandemic.

The facility will house nuclear research equipment based on a water-cooled reactor with the capacity of 200 kilowatts, a multipurpose radiation center featuring industrial gamma-ray equipment, and state-of-the-art research laboratories.

The facility’s construction comes after Russia and Bolivia signed a cooperation agreement on the use of atomic energy in 2016, with it set to be completed by the end of 2024.

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