Obama backs Venezuela's right to nuclear energy

[ChangoLoa]

US President Barack Obama said he had no objection to Venezuela developing nuclear power for civilian energy purposes, days after Caracas and Moscow signed a landmark deal.

"We have no incentive nor interest in increasing friction between Venezuela and the US, but we do think Venezuela needs to act responsibly," Obama told Spanish media at the White House.

"Our attitude is that Venezuela has rights to peacefully develop nuclear power," he said, adding that as a signatory of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty it must also meet its obligations not to weaponize those systems.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez clinched a deal in Moscow on Friday that will see Russia build and operate the first nuclear power plant in his country.
Closer ties between Moscow and Caracas -- Chavez has bought more than four billion dollars of weapons from Russia and promised to give it greater access to Venezuelan oil fields -- are being closely watched in Washington.

In an apparent reference to the United States, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev acknowledged that the move to build the nuclear research facility could concern some countries.

"I do not know if anyone is going to shudder at this. The president (Chavez) said there are going to be states that have different emotions about this. But I wanted to say our intentions are clean and honest."

The agreement was signed by the head of Russia's atomic energy agency Sergei Kiriyenko and built on a plan agreed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with Chavez during a visit to Caracas in April.

Further details were not given about the timing or cost of the construction of the station, but Medvedev said diversifying energy sources was a priority even for a energy-rich country like Venezuela.


More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101020/pl_afp/russiavenezueladiplomacyenergyus_20101020032745;_ylt=AkHbURtPN7TsOpY_XOa3crb9SpZ4

[maddezmom]

1. ChangoLoa

please remember the copyright policy:

Do not post entire copyrighted articles. If you wish to reference an article, provide a brief excerpt and include a link to the original source. Generally, excerpts should not exceed three or four paragraphs.

thanks

[ChangoLoa]

2. Sorry, I thought it was only for the LBN page. My mistake.

[social_critic]

3. Nuclear plant unlikely to be built

A nuclear plant does not make sense for Venezuela. It is a lot cheaper to build natural gas fueled plants, and to expand the hydroelectric system. It is true today Venezuela imports gas from Colombia, but this can be solved if the government develops rational policies which allow the development and production of Venezuela´s huge gas reserves. Unfortunately the government seems to be fixated on dogmatic implementation of a system which has killed almost all gas development activity for new fields.