{"id":11571,"date":"2010-08-04T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vo.afonico-test.ru\/novosti-otrasli\/investment-in-argentine-nuclear\/"},"modified":"2010-08-04T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-04T09:00:00","slug":"investment-in-argentine-nuclear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vosafety.ru\/en\/novosti-otrasli\/investment-in-argentine-nuclear\/","title":{"rendered":"Investment in Argentine nuclear"},"content":{"rendered":"

Argentina\u2019s Embalse nuclear power plant will get a refit to extend its life by another 25\u00a0years as well as a brand new full-scope simulator. The country is also talking to China about a new reactor at the plant.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Loans from the CAF development bank to support the refurbishment project were signed off in Buenos Aires by Argentine President Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner, CAF head Enrique Garcia and minister of economy and public finance Amado Boudou. Some $240\u00a0million will go towards refurbishing the plant, owned by Nucleoel\u00e9trica Argentina SA (NA-SA).<\/p>\n

Garcia said the loan would support the country\u2019s overall energy plans as well as \u201cimprove the quality of life of approximately 3.5\u00a0million people who use the power generated by the plant and favour the development of science and technology in Argentina.\u201d As well as 600\u00a0MWe in electricity, Embalse also produces cobalt-60\u00a0for medical and industrial purposes.<\/p>\n

The Embalse Candu pressurized heavy-water reactor (PHWR) was built by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd in the early 1980s as Argentina\u2019s second nuclear power plant. Atucha was the country\u2019s first, with a 335\u00a0MWe Siemens-supplied PHWR. A second Siemens unit that began construction at Atucha in 1981\u00a0is finally nearing completion and slated to begin operation next year.<\/p>\n

After about 30\u00a0years Candu reactors require a refit of the many pressure tubes that hold nuclear fuel bundles and carry heavy water coolant through the larger calandria vessel. After changing around 380\u00a0tubes, the reactors should be able to safely operate for another 25\u00a0years. The first such refurbishment is underway at Point Lepreau in Canada, while similar work has taken place at Bruce to bring laid-up reactors back into service.<\/p>\n

Another aspect of the service extension project is a new full-scope simulator to be supplied by L-3\u00a0MAPPS. This was announced on 3\u00a0August, just four days after the CAF loans, with work said to be starting immediately. The simulator should go into service in 2012\u00a0featuring full replicas of control room panels<\/p>\n

Leader of the Embalse extension project Rub\u00e9n Semmoloni welcomed the new tool: \u201cFor years we have fulfilled our training needs without a plant-specific simulator, and we now look forward to having our own state-of-the-art simulator, which we see as a central part of our personnel training and safety culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Towards Embalse 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Talks took place last month between China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and Argentine minister of federal planning, public investment and services, Julio De Vido. During a Chinese presidential visit, CNNC official Mao Xiaming spent 45\u00a0minutes with De Vido and confirmed China\u2019s willingness to take part in a tender for the construction of Embalse 2.<\/p>\n

China has supplied pressurized water reactors to Pakistan, and plans to supply more, but these deals have come in the context of the countries\u2019 regional alliance. A successful export to Argentina would represent a significant first foray into the wider commercial nuclear sphere.<\/em><\/p>\n

Agentina began negotiations with AECL towards building one or two new Candu units at Embalse in July 2007, but any results from this were not taken forward by the Argentine government. Earlier this year Argentina signed an agreement with Russia\u2019s Rosatom to share technical information related to the construction of nuclear power plants and look at possibly using Russian technology. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Argentina\u2019s Embalse nuclear power plant will get a refit to extend its life by another 25\u00a0years as well as a brand new full-scope simulator. The country is also talking to China about a new reactor at the plant. Loans from the CAF development bank to support the refurbishment project were signed off in Buenos Aires…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.10.5","language":"en","enabled_languages":["ru","en"],"languages":{"ru":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vosafety.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11571"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vosafety.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vosafety.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vosafety.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vosafety.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vosafety.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vosafety.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vosafety.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vosafety.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11571"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vosafety.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}