Chavez says Russia to build nuclear reactor in Venezuela

Russia will help Venezuela build its first nuclear reactor in the northwestern province of Zulia, President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday.

Chavez had announced on Friday that Venezuela was in talks with Russia on nuclear energy cooperation, and the issue is likely to be discussed during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit later this month. "A nuclear reactor, to produce energy for peaceful purposes, will soon be built in Estado 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.

Medvedev's trip to Venezuela on November 26 will be the first visit by a Russian president. Russian nuclear power plant constructer Atomstroyexport, established in 1998, has completed or is working on reactors in Iran, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, China and India.