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Myanmar: Russia Helps Build Nuclear Research Reactor Myanmar officials plan to break ground this month for construction of a 10-megawatt nuclear research reactor at a secret location near the town of Magway, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. According to Western diplomats, Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Win Aung signed a deal with Russia in July in Moscow for the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry to construct the reactor. The equipment is scheduled for delivery in 2003, and more than 300 Myanmar nationals have undergone nuclear training in Russia over the last year, Russian diplomats said. Myanmar officials refused to comment on the nuclear projects, the Journal reported. Myanmar’s need for a research reactor, which is typically used for medical purposes, was not clear, although there were no suspicions the country had nuclear weapon motives, the Journal reported. A military junta, however, rules Myanmar, so the program would be under military control. The arrival of two Pakistani nuclear scientists in Myanmar after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States drew attention to the program (see GSN, Dec. 10). Suleiman Asad and Mohammed Ali Mukhtar arrived in the country following rumors that U.S. officials wanted to question them about possible links to Osama bin Laden. There was no evidence to connect the Pakistanis with the nuclear reactor, the Journal reported. Meanwhile, China was unhappy with the new Russia-Myanmar cooperation, sources told the Journal. China is Myanmar’s main military supplier and has worked to cultivate ties with the country. “China is not happy with having to compete with Russia in a country like Myanmar, which the Chinese so clearly consider theirs,” an Asian diplomat said (Bertil Lintner, Wall Street Journal, Jan. 3).
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