BUENOS AIRES, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Argentina is keen to increase its capacity for nuclear power production, a major part of the national electricity grid, and has signed deals with Canadian supplier Candu Energy Inc. to help reach that target.
Argentina has been developing nuclear technology since the 1950s but has been ham-strung by a succession of military dictatorships, economic crises and shifting priorities.
But as economic growth beckons, a power shortage is looming. Venezuela's ongoing troubles with electricity stoppages and their impact on its economy awakened Argentina to the urgency of securing its future electricity supplies.
A combination of economic crises and weather upsets drove Venezuela into a recession, which continues for a third year. Argentina has made clear it is set to guarantee nationwide energy security, and certainly so before the October presidential election, in which incumbent Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is a candidate.
Candu Energy Inc. will refurbish and extend the life of Embalse CANDU-6 reactor at the Cordoba plant that has been generating electricity since 1983.
It is Argentina's second power-generation reactor, built nearly a decade after the Atucha, 72 miles northwest of Buenos Aires, which Germany's Kraftwerk Union commissioned in 1974 with 100 percent financing.
The Candu deal is worth $444 million and designed to extend Embalse's life by up to 30 years, Planning Minister Julio de Vido announced.
The government has said it will invest about $1.3 billion on the Embalse extension that will increase its output capacity by around 35 megawatts. Work on the refurbishment is already under way to prepare the reactor for off-line work starting in November 2013 and expected to last about 20 months.
Plans for building two more reactors from 2012-17 appear to be in place despite numerous international rowbacks on nuclear power after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. The first of the two, Atucha II, is to come online this year, more than 24 years later than planned. A fourth is to be built later and officials haven't discounted the possibility of a fifth nuclear power plant.
Argentina says it has secured extensive technology transfers as part of the deal and is looking for greater self-sufficiency in future nuclear energy development plans.
Work on the project is likely to be overseen by NASA and Canadian experts.
Embalse, near the city of Cordoba, feeds into Argentina's national grid, supplying electricity to up to 4 million people in northeastern parts of the country.
The nuclear plant is fueled by non-enriched, natural uranium. Argentina is also planning to expand its uranium production.
