The partnership aims to enhance energy security by “promoting the highest standards of nuclear safety, security, and nonproliferation,” according to a State Department news release.
Quotable: “This cooperative MOU strengthens the U.S.-El Salvador bilateral relationship and helps promote mutual economic prosperity and advance our shared interests, including energy security,” Rubio said in a post to X. “We are eager to expand civil nuclear cooperation with other partners in the Western Hemisphere.”
A closer look: In October, El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly passed the Nuclear Energy Law, which establishes a framework for the regulation, management, and supervision needed to construct and operate nuclear power plants in the Central American nation.
El Salvador relies primarily on renewable energy sources. Data from the end of 2022 shows that renewables (hydro, biofuels, solar, and geothermal) generated nearly 80 percent of the country’s electricity that year, according to the International Energy Agency. The nation is looking to incorporate nuclear to diversify its energy portfolio.
Daniel Álvarez, the country’s director of energy, hydrocarbons, and mines, said El Salvador aims to have a research nuclear reactor operational and hundreds of El Salvadorians trained for nuclear jobs within seven years, the Tico Times reported.
“El Salvador [has the] ambition to diversify our energy matrix under three premises: less reliance on external resources, care for the environment, and affordable energy,” Álvarez announced at the International Atomic Energy Agency General Conference in September, according to Nuclear Engineering International.
Previously, in March 2023, representatives of El Salvador’s government and the Thorium Energy Alliance signed a MOU to promote El Salvador’s plan for renewable energy through thorium. The choice of thorium was made to inform the world that the reactor program was for civilian purposes only, and so they chose a fuel that was plentiful, easy to source and work with, and not a proliferation risk.
Additional partners: Argentina and El Salvador also signed an MOU in October to cooperate on nuclear energy, which covers the exchange of information, scientific and technical visits, and expert missions and training opportunities.
The collaboration comes after a Salvadoran delegation visited nuclear facilities in Argentina and identified human resources training as a top priority for El Salvador’s nuclear energy development, according to the El Salvador in English news outlet.
