Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last week The president of El Salvador proposed to incarcerate the deportees of the United States of all nationality, including the American citizens, but the agreement came the same day as a less published offer of the United States: energy nuclear.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador, Alexandra Hill, Tinoco, said that a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States would help fuel the country of Central America “at competitive prices without depending on geopolitics or oil prices ”.
“The experience that (the United States A) on civilian nuclear energy will give us all the tools we need to train our people, to train our Salvadoral experts, who will direct the technical and regulatory aspects of this transition – this Unprecedented transition, ”said Hill Tonoco.
Rubio praised the nuclear cooperation agreement just before announcing that the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, also agreed to take deportees and the Americans imprisoned from the United States and “put them in his prisons”.
Bukele said He would instill the United States of “relatively low” costs to house criminals sentenced to the El Salvador, or Cecot prison confinement center, a mega-prison designed to contain up to 40,000 people. He said the nominal cost for America would help make El Salvador’s prison system sustainable.
El Salvador Presidency / Handout / Anadolu via Getty Images
The nuclear agreement is a potential national security victory for the United States, according to Edward Kee, which in 2022 was appointed to the Nuclear Energy Energy Advisory Committee.
“A nuclear power plant is a hundred years agreement. If a country in Central America was part of a Russian or Chinese reactor, it would not be good for American national security in the region, “said Kee, who founded the Nuclear Economics Consulting Group, based in Washington. “This is particularly a concern because these Russian and Chinese nuclear energy agreements generally include greater government agreements.”
The United States is the The largest nuclear energy producerRepresenting around 30% of the world total, according to the World Nuclear Association.
Supporters Say nuclear energy is one of the most environmentally friendly and reliable existing energy resources, but critics consider it dangerous, useless and costly.
Energy secretary Chris Wright To promise to prioritize the production of nuclear power And natural gas liquefied under the Trump administration. Investors have applauded and shares jumped when Wright, a manager of the fossil fuel company, was appointed.
Partner countries must sign what is called an agreement of 123 with the United States before the United States License of significant exports of nuclear materials and equipment of American origin. Basically, agreements aim to advance the nuclear non-proliferation and security objectives shared between the United States and its partners, The State Department said in his information page describing these agreements.
The United States had 25 agreements of this type of February 3, especially with the United Kingdom, Singapore, Norway and others. El Salvador would be the first and the only country in Central America in this group.
El Salvador continues nuclear energy – signing a similar agreement with Argentina in October – at a time when the obstacles that prevented small countries from developing it can be smuggled, according to Alfonso Blanco, the former executive director of the ‘Intergovernmental organization of American energy in America.
“There is an important opportunity for the rebirth of nuclear energy through small -scale reactors, and technology requires demonstration sites in countries that lack developed nuclear capacities,” said Blanco, who is now working for Dialogue, a Washington -based reflection group. “This could represent a potential development path for Salvador.”
Blanco said Salvador and most other countries have limited options to obtain the fuel necessary for nuclear energy, because only eight countries have the technical capacity to enrich uranium.
“For El Salvador, position yourself as a regional pioneer in the use of new nuclear technology could have an interesting opportunity, especially since such infrastructure projects have significant overflow effects on job creation And the development of local capacities, “said Blanco.
But while the country’s mega-prison is already constructed and ready to house tens of thousands of people, its nuclear plans are in their infancy.
This means that El Salvador is unlikely to close nuclear energy while President Trump is in office, according to Francisco Monaldi, director of the Latin America energy program at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University .
“This is something that will probably not happen during the Trump administration, and it will take a long time to materialize, if it materializes,” said Monaldi.