Argentina makes deal for Chinese nuclear plant

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The governor of Buenos Aires Province, Axel Kicillof, announced yesterday an agreement with China to build a nuclear power plant, in what will be the most significant Chinese investment in Argentina and the first in the atomic sector in Latin America.

The Atucha III Plant is initially budgeted at US$8.3 billion, will use Chinese technology, and will generate 1,200 megawatts.

The plant will be installed at the Atucha Nuclear Complex in the municipality of Lima, in northern Greater Buenos Aires. It will be the third nuclear plant in the Province of Buenos Aires and the fourth in Argentina (the other plant is in the Province of Córdoba). The project is scheduled for completion in 2030, and its useful life is estimated at 60 years.

“It is a very important project for our energy and economic development, which will generate more activity and jobs in the province, both in the construction process and the plant’s operation,” said Kicillof.

“This nuclear agreement with China has been negotiated at least three times since 2014, still under Cristina Kirchner,” said Patricio Giusto, the Sino-Argentine Observatory executive director. “Initially, the forecast was to build two power plants.

Then, with Mauricio Macri coming to power, the agreement was reduced to one plant and then abandoned in the face of the government’s inability to make the initial contribution of the contract.”

Giusto believes that the resumption of the agreement was a condition imposed by Beijing in the negotiation of Argentina’s membership in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

“This contract is a state-to-state modality, increasing the federal government’s sovereign debt with China. If the agreement follows the original financing conditions, Argentina will have to make an initial contribution of 15% of the total value of the work.”

Representatives of the state-owned Nucleoelétrica Argentina and the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) signed the contract in a virtual event.

It provides for technology transfer so that Argentina will manufacture the nuclear fuel and will meet the safety requirements demanded by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Argentina has used atomic energy since 1974, when it inaugurated the Atucha I plant – which uses Canadian technology. The three plants meet 5% of the country’s electricity demand.