Medvedev and Hugo Chavez Sign Nuclear Deal

Russia agreed on Friday to build Venezuela’s first nuclear power station after talks between Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Hugo Chavez in the Kremlin.

Russian nuclear agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro signed a deal on “the construction and use of an atomic power station on the territory of Venezuela” after the talks.

The deal foresees the construction of a power plant with two 1,200-megawatt nuclear reactors as well as a separate research reactor.

“A deal in the atomic sphere has just been signed. I already know that it will make someone shudder. The president told me that there will states who will have different types of emotions about this,” Medvedev said, in a veiled reference to the US, the long-time foe of Chavez.

“I would like to underline that our intentions are clean and open: we want our partner Venezuela to have the full range of energy choices, to have energy independence,” he said

“Both Russia and Venezuela favor the development of a modern and just world order — a world order in which our future does not depend on the will or desire of any one country, its well-being or its mood,” Medvedev said.

Chavez, for his part, said Venezuela, South America’s biggest oil producer, needs nuclear power to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.

“We are still too dependent on oil because the Yankee empire imposed this model on us,” he said.

Russia and Venezuela also have launched a joint business to tap vast oil deposits in eastern Venezuela.