ARGENTINA has signed two nuclear power plant construction deals with China for about US$15 billion, the Argentine Government said in a statement Sunday, calling the deals “a fundamental step toward diversifying our energy matrix.”

    The plants will add 1,750 megawatts to the energy already produced by three nuclear power plants in Argentina.

    Mexico, Brazil and Argentina are the three Latin American countries that currently generate nuclear power.

    “Between both deals we are talking about financing of close to US$15 billion” over 18 years, the Argentine statement said.

    Argentina’s Ministry of Federal Planning announced in a press release that “the contracts and agreements on building the fourth and fifth nuclear plants in Argentina have been signed” in Antalya, Turkey, where the G20 Leaders Summit was held.

    Under the agreements, China’s third-generation nuclear reactor design, known as the Hualong One design, will be used in the fifth nuclear plant in Argentina.

    “The construction of two new nuclear power plants will ensure our energy supply in the future,” said Argentina’s Economy Minister Axel Kicillof on Sunday.

    The agreements “are very favorable” as they will “give us energy and competitiveness,” Kicillof added, who also attended the signing ceremony.

    The estimated investment of the fourth nuclear plant is US$5.99 billion. Most of the financing will come from Chinese bank loans at a preferential rate, according to the Federal Planning Ministry.

    The fourth plant with a heavy-water reactor will use a Canada Deuterium Uranium (Candu) style reactor, similar to the one in the Embalse Nuclear Power Station in Cordoba, Argentina. It will generate approximately 750 megawatts of power upon completion and will create direct employment for over 7,000 workers.

    It will be built in the Atucha Nuclear Complex, adjacent to the Nestor Kirchner Nuclear Power Plant and the Juan Domingo Peron Nuclear Power Plant, 110 km from Argentina’s capital city of Buenos Aires.

    (SD-Agencies)