Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom announced on Twitter today they have signed a deal with The Republic of Rwanda to build a center for nuclear science and technology.

The Kremlin and the industries it controls are trying to expand in this Central African country and beyond, just like China is doing with its investments throughout the African continent.

From Reuters:

The center will also have a research water-cooled reactor with up to 10 MW capacity, Rosatom said. The deal, as Rosatom hopes, would allow in the future to supply Rwanda with small modular reactors for power generation, a Rosatom official said.

Rosatom is the world’s biggest nuclear company by foreign orders, with a total of 36 nuclear blocks on order. The countries include Bangladesh, Belarus, China, Egypt, Finland, Hungary, India and Turkey.

In a separate statement on Thursday, Rosatom said it has agreed with Ethiopia to cooperate in developing nuclear infrastructure. Rosatom was also in talks with South Africa on building more nuclear reactors there but President Cyril Ramaphosa put nuclear expansion plans on hold.

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Russia’s Rosatom, Rwanda sign deal to build nuclear science center [REUTERS, photo courtesy @rosatom]