[NukeNet] Argentina to Expand Nuclear Program

[Bill Smirnow]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Argentina-Nuclear-Energy.html
   Argentina to Expand Nuclear Program
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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 23, 2006
Filed at 10:41 p.m. ET

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- Argentina
announced an ambitious plan Wednesday to expand
its nuclear program to meet rising energy demands,
including extending the life of existing plants
and possibly resuming uranium mining.

At a Government House news conference, Planning
Minister Julio de Vido said the plan calls for
increasing the life span of the aging Atucha I and
Embalse nuclear power plants and completing
construction by 2010 on the long-stalled Atucha II
plant.

Two decades of delays have hampered completion of
the Atucha II project, located some 75 miles
northwest of the capital of Buenos Aires.

The nearby Atucha I facility has been operating
since the mid-1970s, in conjunction with the
Embalse plant in central Argentina.

The planning minister was flanked by President
Nestor Kirchner, who did not comment on the plan
nor on a report by the leading newspaper Clarin
saying the nuclear program could cost the
government $3.5 billion over eight years.

''When this government took office in 2003, the
nuclear energy sector was reactivating,'' De Vido
said. ''Today we come to establish a strategic
plan for the Argentine nuclear energy sector for
the coming years.''

The program calls for large-scale power generation
to meet fast-growing energy demands, amid careful
regulation by national authorities. Among other
steps, De Vido announced plans for ''concrete
steps'' toward resumption of uranium mining.

De Vido did not comment on a Clarin report that
Argentina might revive a uranium enrichment
program shut down in 1983 due to budget
constraints. Enrichment provides the fuel needed
to operate such nuclear plants, but can also be a
central to building nuclear weapons.

Argentina, one of the leading Latin American
nations in nuclear power generation, has had to
stave off potential energy shortfalls in recent
years.

The move comes as Argentina and Brazil are seeking
new energy sources to counter crude oil prices
that have passed $70 a barrel, along with soaring
prices in natural gas and other fuels.

Last May, Brazil inaugurated a uranium enrichment
center capable of producing nuclear fuel. The
center is expected to save South America's largest
economy millions of dollars that the country now
spends to enrich fuel at Urenco, the European
enrichment consortium.

Both nations have stressed the strictly peaceful
nature of their nuclear programs, given a backdrop
of international pressure against Iran to halt
expansion of its nuclear program. Washington has
cautioned Iran that it will seek sanctions in the
U.N. Security Council if Tehran does not step
enriching uranium.