The Argentine president, Javier Milei, has announced his desire to install new nuclear reactors in his country to satisfy energy demand in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, an announcement criticized by specialists.
“Nuclear energy is the only energy sufficiently efficient, abundant and rapidly scalable to cope with the development of our civilization,” he said in a video on Friday, along with the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, and. an advisor, Demian Reidel.
Three active power plants
With the current mode of energy production, “we will not be able to satisfy this new demand” for AI, Javier Milei continued. Argentina currently has three nuclear power plants: Atucha I, Atucha II and Embalse. According to official data, 9% of the energy consumed in the country in July 2024 was of nuclear origin.
The first step will be “the construction of an SMR (reactor) at the Atucha site,” near Buenos Aires, according to Demian Reidel. SMRs (“small modular reactors” in English) are smaller and simpler to build than conventional power plants. Rafael Grossi considered this announcement “promising.”
According to the IAEA, in 2020 Russia inaugurated the first power plant powered by SMR technology. Several SMR projects underway in Argentina, Canada, China, South Korea and the United States are awaiting authorization.
“Great contradiction”
The former president of the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), Adriana Serquis (2021-2024), pointed out a “huge contradiction” in the Argentine president’s announcement, accusing him of “denying or ignoring that a project already exists.” for an SMR-type reactor in Argentina “very close to completion, called CAREM, recognized in international analyzes as one of the most advanced” and “which should be put into service in 2028.”
But since Javier Milei took office at the end of 2023, “CAREM construction has slowed to a virtual halt,” former CAREM planning and policy secretary Diego Hurtado told the newspaper Página12. (2019-2023).
As part of his “chainsaw” plan to cut public spending, Javier Milei has cut more than 30,000 jobs in the public sector and reduced the budget dedicated to science and technology. According to data from the state employees union, CNEA employees have lost 30% of their purchasing power since December 2024.
Source: BFM TV
