Myanmar, Russia sign pact on developing nuclear power

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military-led government, working with Russia’s state atomic energy company, has inaugurated a nuclear power information center as a step toward developing atomic power to fill energy shortages in the strife-torn Southeast Asian nation. Myanmar state media say the leader of the military government, Min Aung Hlaing, met with the head of the Russian State Atomic Energy Corp., or Rosatom, at the opening of a Nuclear Technology Information Center. Myanmar hopes to build a small reactor under a preliminary agreement with Rosatom signed in 2015. The development is likely to ignite concerns that Myanmar’s military wants to develop a nuclear weapons capability. Russia is a close ally of Myanmar, whose army ousted an elected government in 2021.