Russia Offers Expertise To Develop Malaysia's Nuke Programme

By Siti Radziah Rahmat KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 (Bernama) -- Nuclear superpower Russia will extend its expertise if Malaysia decides to develop its own nuclear programme, said Russian Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev. He said Russia was the only country which could provide support for a national nuclear industry development due to its well-developed nuclear industry. "We will propose a very sophisticated and complex construction of a local nuclear programme. We can construct nuclear power generation stations. "We can also organise training of local personnel because we believe the project can be managed by Malaysia itself," he told Bernama in an interview recently following his participation at the 47th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting and Related Meetings last month. Ulyukayev was responding to a question on how Russia could help out if Malaysia wanted to develop its own nuclear power plant. "We have good experience, for instance, in power and nuclear power stations. In Asia, we are constructing infrastructure of these sectors in some countries and also deliver site support for them," he added. Russia is one of the 10 dialogue partners of ASEAN. The others are the United States, China, Japan, Australia, Canada, India, South Korea, the European Union and New Zealand. The then Soviet Union became the world's second nuclear weapons state after it tested its first device at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, on Aug 29, 1949. Today, Russia is one of five recognised nuclear weapons states under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, a status which it inherited as the legal successor of the Soviet Union. Other nuclear weapons states are the United States, the United Kingdom, France and China. -- BERNAMA