The seven-day Integrated Safety Assessment Mission for Research Reactor was requested by Bolivia's Nuclear Energy Agency (ABEN) as the construction phase nears completion and the project prepares to move on to commissioning. The experts taking part were from Bulgaria, Canada, France and the Netherlands, as well as one International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) official.
The Russian pool-type 200 kW pressurised water research reactor is a central part of the Centre for Research and Development in Nuclear Technology, which is being built in El Alto at an altitude of 4000 metres. It is scheduled to start up in 2025, and become the world's highest altitude research reactor.
Review team leader Joseph Christensen, Senior Nuclear Safety Officer at the IAEA, said: "ABEN has made significant progress in construction and is building an effective organisation to begin commissioning, which will contribute to ensuring safety. The review team encourages ABEN to continue keeping safety as the top priority as they proceed toward commissioning."
Recommendations for improvements included strengthening the on-the-job training of future operating staff of the reactor; formalising the safety committee to provide independent review and assessment of activities important to safety in the areas of commissioning and operation; strengthening the supervision of construction and commissioning of the facility by ABEN; updating the radiation protection programme, and establishing operational limits and conditions specific for commissioning.
Hortensia Jiménez Rivera, ABEN director general, said that the decision to implement the Bolivian Nuclear Programme had been taken "with a clear understanding that the development of nuclear technology is only possible through a strict commitment to the safety culture. This ensures the successful implementation of the programme, allowing the population to benefit from its broad applications in health, industry, agriculture, the environment, water resources, mining, science and technology. In addition, the implementation of Bolivia’s first nuclear research reactor represents a turning point in the country’s scientific and technological development".
The Cyclotron Preclinical Radiopharmacy Complex at the El Alto centre is already up and running, and will produce a line of pharmaceuticals to provide the necessary supplies for the network of Bolivian nuclear medicine centres, intended to allow Bolivians to get quicker and higher quality diagnosis and treatment without having to travel abroad. The Multipurpose Irradiation Centre has also been completed.
Rosatom announced the signing of the contract with the ABEN in September 2017 for the construction of the El Alto nuclear research and technology complex. Construction of the facility began in July 2021 and the research reactor vessel was delivered and installed in its design position in 2023.
