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The National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) has been working for two decades on the development of the CAREM modular reactor. Argentine President Javier Milei promised on Friday (20.12.2024) to install nuclear reactors to supply artificial intelligence servers, an announcement considered contradictory by sector specialists. Nuclear energy is the only source that is efficient, abundant and rapidly scalable enough to cope with the development of our civilization, the president said. The current generation of energy will not be enough to meet this new demand (the AI), which is why we are convinced that there will be a resurgence of nuclear energy throughout the world, predicted Milei in a video accompanied by his advisor Demian Reidel, and the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi. Reidel, who is in charge of carrying out the initiative, said that the first step will be the construction of a SMR reactor (small modular reactor) on the Atucha (nuclear power plant) site, although this type of technology is still in the development phase. According to the IAEA, Russia launched the first nuclear power plant operating with two SMRs in 2020. Several projects under development in Argentina, Canada, China, South Korea and the United States are awaiting licensing for installation. SMRs are smaller and more powerful reactors than traditional ones, but with greater flexibility and mobility. Argentina has three nuclear power plants: Atucha I, Atucha II and Embalse. According to official data, in July of this year, 9% of the energy consumed in the country was nuclear. The announcement is promising Grossi considered the announcement to be promising and stressed that nuclear energy is a tool that Argentina has used over the last 70 years with notable success. The National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) has been working for two decades on the development of the CAREM modular reactor. Former CNEA president Adriana Serquis (2021-2024) believes that there is a tremendous contradiction in this announcement and criticized Milei for denying or ignoring that there is already a SMR project very close to completion called CAREM, recognized in international analyses as one of the most advanced, as if to start in 2028. Former Secretary of Planning and Policies of the Ministry of Science Diego Hurtado (2019-2023) told the newspaper Página12 this week that since Milei took office the construction of CAREM has been slowed down to a virtual standstill. As part of his chainsaw plan to achieve a fiscal surplus, Milei has eliminated more than 30,000 public sector jobs this year, reduced the number of ministries and the size of state agencies in general, as well as the budget allocated to science and technology. According to data from the state employees union, CNEA workers salaries lost 30% of their purchasing power between December 2023 and December 2024. |
