MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela claims right to nuclear energy

Venezuela insisted on Wednesday it has an “absolute right” to develop nuclear energy, which will have entirely peaceful ends.

As to recent reports that the government of President Hugo Chavez was holding talks with Argentina for the purchase of a nuclear reactor, Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said: "We are exploring that possibility ... but there is no accord, we have signed no agreement with Argentina or any other country".

Mr. Rangel said that when talking of Venezuela and nuclear energy there's "no way can you think of bombs, of weapons of war or of mass destruction

The vice president blasted as "hypocritical" unnamed nations "that want to condemn a good part of (the world's) countries so that they don't develop nuclear energy".

Last October 9, Buenos Aires daily Clarin reported that Caracas was negotiating the purchase from Argentina of a "medium-power nuclear-electric reactor", a claim denied the following day by Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez.

He said that Venezuela was working with Argentina and Brazil "to broaden conventions on scientific and technological cooperation on nuclear matters ... and for the moment, we don't contemplate acquisition of any element for the generation of atomic energy".