El Salvador’s ambassador to the United States, Milena Mayorga, announced Tuesday her country signed an agreement to build its first nuclear power plant.
In a video shared by Mayorga on Facebook and published by local outlets, Mayorga explained that the memorandum was signed during a meeting at the U.S. Nuclear Energy Institute, and explained that El Salvador’s first nuclear plant will be ready in seven years.
“Nuclear energy for El Salvador. Today we signed another agreement with the U.S. for the exchange of technical information and cooperation,” Mayorga wrote on social media.
“We continue to make progress in innovation and clean energy,” she continued.
Mayorga reportedly highlighted the United States’ collaboration as a “key factor” for the success of El Salvador’s nuclear power plans, and noted that America’s support “is reflected not only in the signing of the memorandum, but also in the technical support and recognition of El Salvador’s work in the field of energy.”
In recent years, President Nayib Bukele has led efforts towards establishing nuclear power plants in El Salvador to diversity the nation’s energy production matrix and for scientific use. In March 2024, Bukele announced that the country began its process to attain the approval of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to develop and use nuclear energy. Months later, in October 2024, the Salvadoran parliament approved a Nuclear Energy law for the peaceful application of nuclear technologies and fuel in the country
In February 2025, El Salvador and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding in which the U.S. agreed to help El Salvador develop “civil nuclear energy” during Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s official visit to the country in addition to other agreements signed between both nations.
In June 2025, a IAEA delegation visited the country and carried out a safety review of the country’s site selection process for its first nuclear power plant that, if successfully built, will turn El Salvador into the first Central American country to use nuclear energy and the fourth in Latin America after Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.
Let us remember that we are always allies of the North American companies that are helping us with President Nayib Bukele’s strategic agenda,” Mayorga said.
“El Salvador is really taking marked steps forward to change the way it approaches its economy and its governance and I think its moving in a terrific direction that is a great opportunity for collaboration with the United States,” Elizabeth Urbanas, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia and the Americas at the Office of International Affairs in the U.S. Department of Energy, said in the video published by the Salvadoran ambassador.
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