However, the financial restrictions facing the country, which has just renegotiated a loan with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 44,000 million dollars, make it impossible for it to finance the project.
“As a company, we hope that it will be 100% financed by China to guarantee that there is no delay with the problems that we have with financing funds,” said Jorge Sidelnik, executive director of NASA, during a tour of the facilities of the Atucha I and Atucha II nuclear power plants, 100 kilometers from Buenos Aires.
The new plant, Atucha III, will be built on the same 50-hectare site, on the banks of the Paraná River, in the city of Lima, and will require 99 months of work, he explained.
The plant will help the country increase the nuclear share of installed power to 8% in the coming years, from the 4.08% currently represented by the 1,763 megawatts of power from the country’s three nuclear power plants.
“This input reactor is going to last 60 years, the projections are 80 years, it is an important long-term business,” Sidelnik explained.
In addition to operating the plants, Nucleoeléctrica Argentina, whose majority shareholder is the Ministry of Economy with 79%, also carries out their design, engineering and construction.
Atucha I, the first nuclear power plant in Latin America, has an electrical power of 362 megawatts, Atucha II, 745 megawatts, and Embalse, in the province of Córdoba, 656 megawatts.