Bilateral cooperation and regulation
On the sidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Power, held Oct. 27–29 in Incheon, Republic of Korea, Argentina's secretary of nuclear affairs, Federico Ramos Napoli, met with Michael Goff, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
Argentina stressed the importance of moving toward greater regulatory harmonization to facilitate the development of small modular reactors (SMRs) in the region. Both delegations agreed on the need to avoid duplicating licensing processes, reduce costs and provide greater predictability for investment, while maintaining nuclear safety standards.
After the meeting, Ramos Napoli wrote on X: "Argentina has a lot to contribute to the new phase of expansion of the global nuclear industry. We have highly qualified professionals, experience in developing our own technology and industrial capabilities that we want to project into new markets."
The official added that he and Goff agreed "that the challenge is not only to develop new technologies, but to create the conditions for them to be deployed at commercial scale. That requires clear rules, predictability for investment and cooperation models that include technology transfer and local capacity building."
According to Argentina's Secretariat of Nuclear Affairs, the meeting made it possible to identify opportunities for technological and industrial cooperation based on both countries' capabilities and strategic projects.
Argentina's Nuclear Industry Had Already Taken Its Offer to the U.S. Market
Argentina's nuclear sector had already taken its offering to the U.S. market. In August, a delegation led by the Secretariat of Nuclear Affairs took part in the Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo in Dallas, organized by the American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Energy Institute. It included INVAP, the nuclear technology company controlled by Río Negro province; uranium dioxide producer Dioxitek; nuclear fuel and components maker CONUAR; Nucleoeléctrica Argentina, the state-owned operator of the country's nuclear power plants; and IMPSA, the Mendoza-based equipment maker now controlled by U.S. investors.
In May, CONUAR had set up a booth on its own initiative at a modular-reactor event in Austin, Texas. In addition, IMPSA CEO Jorge Salcedo told Forbes Argentina that the company will begin exporting nuclear components to the United States.
On the investment front, in July Meitner Energy, a company of the Ansari Group in which INVAP holds a stake, submitted to Argentina's Ministry of Economy a $1.2 billion proposal to build an ACR-300 modular reactor of about 300 megawatts electric (MWe), using pressurized water reactor (PWR) technology, at the Atucha nuclear complex in Lima, Zárate district, Buenos Aires province.
According to the government, the project would be financed entirely with private U.S. capital, could be admitted to the Super RIGI, an expanded version of Argentina's Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI) aimed at large investments in new industries, and would require about five years of construction once it obtains approval from the Ministry of Economy and a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ARN).
RA-10 Research Reactor and Private Capital for a Radioisotope Plant
The Argentine delegation also presented progress on the RA-10 multipurpose reactor, which is scheduled to start operating in 2027, and the private participation model being promoted to expand radioisotope production and exports.
The RA-10 is a 30 MW thermal (MWt) open-pool research reactor developed by Argentina's National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) at the Ezeiza Atomic Center, and will replace the RA-3, which has operated at the same site since 1967. It is not designed to generate electricity: according to CNEA, it will produce radioisotopes for medical and industrial use and offer materials irradiation services and neutron transmutation doping of silicon.
According to World Nuclear News, construction is 96% complete and more than 500 people are working on its completion and on pre-commissioning tests. The Secretariat of Nuclear Affairs and CNEA said commissioning will begin before the end of 2026, with the goal of completing that stage in the first months of 2027, once a license is obtained from the ARN.
According to Argentine outlet DEF, the RA-10 would allow Argentina to produce the equivalent of 20% of the international market for a group of radioisotopes, including molybdenum-99, lutetium-177 and iridium-192. Producing at commercial scale requires a processing plant associated with the reactor.
The Secretariat's guidelines call for the majority partner to be the private investor that provides the capital, while CNEA would be a minority partner contributing the technology and the trained personnel for the operation. As a precedent for that model, the Secretariat cited CONUAR, whose shareholders are CNEA and the Pérez Companc Group, according to DEF.