ANGOLA HAS NO CIVIL NUCLEAR PROGRAM

UNCLAS LUANDA 000011 DEPARTMENT PASS TO T MARC HUMPHREY DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE PASS TO SARAH LOPP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AO BEXP BTIO EMIN ENIV ENRG PGOV PREL SUBJECT: ANGOLA HAS NO CIVIL NUCLEAR PROGRAM REF: 08 STATE 127423 ¶1. (U) This cable is in response to Department requests for information on in-country developments regarding civil nuclear energy in reftel. ¶2. (U) SUMMARY and COMMENT: Angola has no existing civil nuclear industry, but GRA officials have stated a desire to pursue nuclear energy for power generation and in the health care industry. At present, there are no existing or planned nuclear power related facilities or uranium mining, but the GRA's brief statements about a potential nuclear industry call for the exploitation of Angola's uranium deposits. Current GRA plans are currently limited to developing the capacity to use nuclear technology in medicine, and agricultural research, and to the development of nuclear physics education programs at the Ministry of Science and Technology's Science and Nuclear Technology Unit. ¶3. (U) Future nuclear power generation would ostensibly be used to replace the thirty-three percent of its electricity that is generated by thermal sources, mostly diesel generators. The remaining sixty-seven percent is generated by hydro, with an existing hydro development project set to double Angola's entire electrical generating capacity in the coming years. Given this and the other hydro projects currently under development, as well as state controls on electricity prices, Post deems it highly unlikely that a private sector driven nuclear power industry could currently take hold in Angola. Any future nuclear power industry would likely follow Angola's current statist model for the existing power sector, however, given the country's pressing development needs in the wake of its twenty-seven year civil war, and a lack of related technical and manufacturing capacity, Post deems any state-run nuclear power industry equally unlikely for the foreseeable future. END SUMMARY and COMMENT. ¶4. (U) TEXT CONTAINS RESPONSES TO SPECIFIC QUESTIONS FOUND IN PARAGRAPH 8 OF REFTEL NOT OTHERWISE ANSWERED IN SUMMARY: --Key nuclear decision making government body would likely be the Ministry of Science and Technology, headed by Minister de Candida Pereira Teixeira, if Angola had a nuclear industry. --Angola has no nuclear regulatory authority, but did pass an Atomic Energy Law in 2007 that calls for the peaceful use of nuclear energy in power generation and medicine. --Angola has no domestic nuclear liability law. --Angola's limited manufacturing base is not involved in any nuclear related products or services. --Angola has no nuclear trained workforce aside from a small handful of radiotherapy technicians at two hospitals. --Angola has no current or anticipated nuclear tenders of any kind. --There are no other nuclear supplier countries currently engaging Angola. --Were Angola to pursue nuclear energy it may be inclined to partner with China, given the increasing economic and political ties between the two countries. END TEXT MOZENA