In Argentina, about 10% [1] of the electricity comes from 3 operational nuclear reactors: Embalse, a CANDU reactor, and Atucha I and II, two PHWR German designs.
In 2001, the Atucha plant was modified to burn Slightly Enriched Uranium, making it the first PHWR reactor to burn that fuel worldwide.[ citation needed ] Atucha was originally planned to be a complex with various reactors. Atucha 2 (similar to Atucha 1 but more powerful) began to produce energy on June 3, 2014, and it is expected to produce 745MWh[ clarification needed ]. Plans for Atucha III, a third reactor in the Atucha complex, have been announced. [2]
Argentina also has various research reactors, [3] and exports nuclear technology. Nucleoeléctrica of Argentina and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited are negotiating over the contracts and project delivery model for a new 740 MWe CANDU nuclear power plant. [4]
In July 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a nuclear energy cooperation agreement with Argentine President Cristina Fernández Kirchner, during a visit to the country. [5]
In February 2015, Argentine president Cristina Kirchner and Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping signed a cooperation agreement, and the build of a Hualong One design power station has been proposed. [6] [7]
In December 2015 a new uranium enrichment plant to manufacture fuel for Argentina's nuclear plants, located in Pilcaniyeu, was inaugurated. The plant will use both gaseous diffusion and more modern laser techniques. [8]
China and Argentina had agreed a contract to build a 700 MWe CANDU 6 derived reactor. Its construction was planned to start in 2018 at Atucha, [9] [10] but it was indefinitely suspended by Mauricio Macri's government due to financial issues. [11] The building of a 1000 MWe Hualong One plant is planned to start in 2020. [10]
Plant name | Unit No. | Type | Model | Status | Capacity (MW) | Begin building | Commercial operation | Closed |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Atucha [12] | 1 | PHWR | Siemens-KWU | Operational | 335 | 1 Jun 1968 | 24 Jun 1974 | |
2 | PHWR | Siemens-KWU | Operational | 692 | 14 Jul 1981 | 27 Jun 2014 | ||
3 | PWR | Hualong One | Planned [13] | 1200 | ||||
Embalse [14] | 1 | PHWR | CANDU-6 | Operational | 600 | 1 Apr 1974 | 20 Jan 1984 | (2049) [15] |
CAREM | 1 | PWR | CAREM25 | Under construction | 25 | 8 Feb 2014 |
Name [16] | Reactor type | Status | Capacity in kWt | Construction start date | First criticality date | Closure | Operator and owner |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
RA-0 | Tank | Operational | 0.01 | January 1954 | 1 January 1965 | National University of Córdoba | |
RA-1 Enrico Fermi | Tank | Operational | 40 | April 1957 | 20 January 1958 | National Atomic Energy Commission | |
RA-2 | Critical assembly | Decommissioned | 0.03 | January 1965 | 1 July 1966 | 23 September 1983 a | National Atomic Energy Commission |
RA-3 | Pool | Operational | 10,000 | February 1963 | 17 May 1967 | National Atomic Energy Commission | |
RA-4 | HOMOG | Operational | 0.001 | January 1971 | 1 January 1972 | National University of Rosario | |
RA-6 | Pool | Operational | 3,000 | September 1978 | 23 September 1982 | National Atomic Energy Commission | |
RA-8 | Critical assembly | Temporary Shutdown | 0.01 | January 1986 | 16 June 1997 | 2001 | National Atomic Energy Commission |
RA-10 | Under construction | 30,000 | March 2016 | (late 2023) | National Atomic Energy Commission |
Provinces that have banned the construction of nuclear power plants are: [17]
The CANDU is a Canadian pressurized heavy-water reactor design used to generate electric power. The acronym refers to its deuterium oxide moderator and its use of uranium fuel. CANDU reactors were first developed in the late 1950s and 1960s by a partnership between Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, Canadian General Electric, and other companies.
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) is a Canadian federal Crown corporation and Canada's largest nuclear science and technology laboratory. AECL developed the CANDU reactor technology starting in the 1950s, and in October 2011 licensed this technology to Candu Energy.
The Advanced CANDU reactor (ACR), or ACR-1000, was a proposed Generation III+ nuclear reactor design, developed by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL). It combined features of the existing CANDU pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) with features of light-water cooled pressurized water reactors (PWR). From CANDU, it took the heavy water moderator, which gave the design an improved neutron economy that allowed it to burn a variety of fuels. It replaced the heavy water cooling loop with one containing conventional light water, reducing costs. The name refers to its design power in the 1,000 MWe class, with the baseline around 1,200 MWe.
The Steam Generating Heavy Water Reactor (SGHWR) was a United Kingdom design for commercial nuclear reactors. It uses heavy water as the neutron moderator and normal "light" water as the coolant. The coolant boils in the reactor, like a boiling water reactor, and drives the power-extraction steam turbines.
Nuclear Power Demonstration was the first Canadian nuclear power reactor, and the prototype for the CANDU reactor design. Built by Canadian General Electric, in partnership with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) and the Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario it consisted of a single 22 MWe pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) unit located in Rolphton, Ontario, not far from AECL's Chalk River Laboratories. NPD was owned by AECL and operated by Ontario Hydro.
The Douglas Point Nuclear Generating Station was Canada’s first full-scale nuclear power plant and the second CANDU pressurised heavy water reactor. Its success was a major milestone and marked Canada's entry into the global nuclear power scene. The same site was later used for the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, which was built just to the south of Douglas Point.
The National Atomic Energy Commission is the Argentine government agency in charge of nuclear energy research and development.
Nuclear power in Canada is provided by 19 commercial reactors with a net capacity of 13.5 gigawatt (GW), producing a total of 95.6 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, which accounted for 16.6% of the country's total electric energy generation in 2015. All but one of these reactors are located in Ontario, where they produced 61% of the province's electricity in 2019. Seven smaller reactors are used for research and to produce radiopharmaceuticals for use in nuclear medicine.
The Embalse Nuclear Power Station is one of three operational nuclear power plants in Argentina. It is located on the southern shore of a reservoir on the Río Tercero, near the city of Embalse, Córdoba, 110 km south-southwest of Córdoba City.
The Karachi Nuclear Power Plant is a large commercial nuclear power plant located at the Paradise Point in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.
The China National Nuclear Corporation is a state-owned enterprise founded in 1955 in Beijing. CNNC's president and vice-president are appointed by the Premier of the People's Republic of China. CNNC oversees all aspects of China's civilian and military nuclear programs. According to its own mission statement, it "is a main part of the national nuclear technology industry and a leading element of national strategic nuclear forces and nuclear energy development." CNNC is a nationwide industrial conglomerate integrating science, technology, industry, and international trade.
The 2006 Argentine nuclear reactivation plan is a project to renew and reactivate the development of nuclear power in Argentina. The main points of the plan were announced by the Argentine government through Planning Minister Julio de Vido during a press conference on 23 August 2006. They include:
China is one of the world's largest producers of nuclear power. The country ranks third in the world both in total nuclear power capacity installed and electricity generated, accounting for around one tenth of global nuclear power generated. As of February 2023, China has 55 plants with 57GW in operation, 22 under construction with 24 GW and more than 70 planned with 88GW. About 5% of electricity in the country is due to nuclear energy. These plants generated 417 TWh of electricity in 2022 This is versus the September 2022 numbers of 53 nuclear reactors, with a total capacity of 55.6 gigawatt (GW). In 2019, nuclear power had contributed 4.9% of the total Chinese electricity production, with 348.1 TWh.
CAREM is a small modular reactor for electrical power generation currently under construction near the city of Zárate, in the northern part of Buenos Aires province beside the Atucha I Nuclear Power Plant.
A pressurized heavy-water reactor (PHWR) is a nuclear reactor that uses heavy water (deuterium oxide D2O) as its coolant and neutron moderator. PHWRs frequently use natural uranium as fuel, but sometimes also use very low enriched uranium. The heavy water coolant is kept under pressure to avoid boiling, allowing it to reach higher temperature (mostly) without forming steam bubbles, exactly as for a pressurized water reactor. While heavy water is very expensive to isolate from ordinary water (often referred to as light water in contrast to heavy water), its low absorption of neutrons greatly increases the neutron economy of the reactor, avoiding the need for enriched fuel. The high cost of the heavy water is offset by the lowered cost of using natural uranium and/or alternative fuel cycles. As of the beginning of 2001, 31 PHWRs were in operation, having a total capacity of 16.5 GW(e), representing roughly 7.76% by number and 4.7% by generating capacity of all current operating reactors.
The Atucha Nuclear Complex, or Atucha Nuclear Power Plant, is the location for two adjacent nuclear power plants in Lima, Zárate, Buenos Aires Province, about 100 kilometres (60 mi) from Buenos Aires, on the right-hand shore of the Paraná de las Palmas River. Both are pressurized heavy-water reactors (PHWR) employing a mixture of natural uranium and enriched uranium, and use heavy water for cooling and neutron moderation.
The Hualong One is a Chinese Generation III pressurized water nuclear reactor jointly developed by the China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) and the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). The CGN version, and its derived export version, is called HPR1000. It is commonly mistakenly referred to in media as the "ACPR1000" and "ACP1000", which are in fact earlier reactors design programs by CGN and CNNC.
The IPHWR-700 is an Indian pressurized heavy-water reactor designed by the NPCIL. It is a Generation III reactor developed from earlier CANDU based 220 MW and 540 MW designs. It can generate 700 MW of electricity. Currently there are 5 units under construction and 10 more units planned, at a cost of ₹1.05 lakh crore (US$13 billion).
The IPHWR is a class of Indian pressurized heavy-water reactors designed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. The baseline 220 MWe design was developed from the CANDU based RAPS-1 and RAPS-2 reactors built at Rawatbhata, Rajasthan. Later the design was based on VVER technology which was scaled to 540 MW and 700 MW designs. Currently there are 17 units of various types operational at various locations in India.