Venezuela wants Argentine nuclear reactor - paper
Sun Oct 9, 2005
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - Venezuela has asked to buy a nuclear reactor from Argentina in a request being handled like a "hot potato" in Buenos Aires because of leftist President Hugo Chavez's clashes with Washington, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
Venezuela's state-owned oil firm PDVSA requested a medium-strength reactor in a meeting with Argentine officials in Buenos Aires in late August, saying it wanted to develop alternative energy sources in its Orinoco oil region, the Clarin newspaper said.
Officials were not immediately available to confirm the report on the request by Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and a key energy supplier to the United States.
Despite President Nestor Kirchner's close ties to Chavez, officials in his government were divided over the wisdom of selling nuclear technology to the firebrand Venezuelan, who Washington sees as a destabilizing force in the region, Clarin reported, citing unnamed Foreign Ministry sources.
Venezuela's proposal has been passed from one government office to another "like a hot potato," one diplomat was quoted as saying.
Some officials are believed to fear Chavez, a self-proclaimed revolutionary socialist, could secretly aim to develop nuclear arms while others simply prefer not to irk Washington. Talks between the two countries are still in the preliminary stages.
Chavez announced last May his intentions to use nuclear power, saying his government could start talks with Iran as well as with Argentina and Brazil.
Chavez' anti-U.S. rhetoric and alliance with Communist Cuba's Fidel Castro has long riled Washington. His government also backed Iran, branded part of the "axis of evil" by U.S. President George W. Bush, in its dispute with the United States and Europe over its nuclear program. U.S. officials accuse Iran of secretly working to produce nuclear arms.
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