An Untimely Quest

A recent article in the Health Watch supplement of the English language weekly newspaper The Myanmar Times, suggests that at least a small market exists in Burma for advanced medical technology capable of using radioisotopes.

The article, “Hospitals Constantly Seeking New Equipment,” says that a local distributor, Meditech Company Ltd, has imported Siemens medical equipment to Burma since 1997.

According to an advertisement in the Yangon Directory 2007, Meditech imports gamma cameras and positron emission tomography (PET) scanners, both commonly used in nuclear medical diagnosis.

But the high cost of such products allows o­nly top-tier facilities, such as the private Pan Hlaing hospital in Rangoon, to acquire the equipment, The Myanmar Times article noted.

Burma’s contract with Atomstroyexport will include not o­nly the construction of the facility but the delivery and removal of core fuel. In addition, Rosatom will provide training in Russia for several hundred Burmese scientists and researchers, over and above the several hundred that have reportedly been training there in the last few years.

But to maintain a network of regulatory safeguards, from the technicians who produce the radioisotopes to the truck drivers who deliver them to hospitals, will require training thousands of individuals, including hospital staff, in the handling and tracking of radioactive materials.

Any attempt to initiate a nuclear weapons program would require even more complex controls and training, and Burma would likely not be capable of doing so clandestinely, even if Russia or North Korea were willing to assist in the effort.

“It is highly unlikely that Burma currently has any intention of acquiring nuclear weapons, from North Korea or anywhere else,” writes defense analyst Andrew Selth in the 2007 Griffith Asia Institute report Burma and Nuclear Proliferation: Policies and Perceptions.

He added: “It is hard to escape the conclusion that the main impetus behind the nuclear reactor project was status and prestige, driven by the enthusiasm of the Minister for Science and Technology [U Thaung], who believed that nuclear research was necessary for ‘a modern nation.’”

Why Burma (and Atomstroyexport) thought it best to sell the project as a research facility focused o­n medical applications of nuclear technology remains unclear. “For Burma to invest in nuclear medical technology makes no sense from a public health standpoint, when her peoples continue to die needlessly from diarrheal diseases (including cholera), vaccine-preventable diseases, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and malnutrition,” Voravit said.

Moreover, Burma’s chronic energy shortages are at least marginally more persuasive as an argument for nuclear investment, though the lack of necessary security and regulatory controls in the country would still obtain; and evidence exists to suggest that this is ultimately the direction Burma’s military government wants to take.

In the short term, however, any suggestion that Burma is in active pursuit of nuclear weapons would be rash. To build the proposed research reactor will take at least three to five years, providing negotiations proceed without incident.

Any attempt to develop a nuclear weapon would require 10 or more years, according to Selth, given the proper conditions. “For a country like Burma, these would constitute formidable obstacles, even if no attempts were made by the international community to halt the program,” writes Selth.

Nonetheless, Burma’s small research reactor would not rule out at least a small step in that direction.

“If you provide a country with nuclear technology, you’re providing them with the basic building blocks for them to move o­n at some time in the future into a nuclear weapons program,” said Large.