Chile and the United States signed an accord Friday intended to help Chile develop a nuclear energy program.

While fears of radiation contamination abound following the nuclear crisis in Japan, Chile will attempt to fill expected energy gaps with nuclear. The South American country currently imports much of its energy.

Still, Chile's mining and energy minister, Laurence Golborne, said he will carefully study the crisis in Japan before committing to nuclear.

"We may decide we don't want this type of energy, and we will have to analyze other sources of energy," he said.

The nuclear contract had been expected to be a highlight of President Obama's one-day visit to Chile. American and Chilean officials said its importance had not been downgraded, despite the incident in Japan.

Chile is concerned that its outdated power grid will not be able to keep pace with its rapidly growing economy. The country expects it will need to double its energy supplies over the next 12 years if demand for electricity continues to grow at 6 percent per year, said Jorge Zanelli, a physicist who studied nuclear energy for the previous Chilean government. If nuclear is not part of the equation, more than 60 percent of the energy increase would have to be fulfilled using fossil fuels.

Nuclear critics say Japan's situation should serve as a warning to Chile.

"Japan's nightmare this past week has been very timely for the Chilean government and society to understand what the real risks and vulnerability involved for seismic countries wishing to develop nuclear power," said Sara Larraín, executive director of Chile Sustentable, an environmental group (Alexei Barrionuevo, New York Times, March 18). -- PK