Argentina will turn to a US investor and small modular reactor technology to expand its nuclear energy sector, a top adviser to President Javier Milei has said, potentially spelling the end for a Chinese project on the same site.
Demian Reidel, who leads the libertarian government’s nuclear power policy, said Milei would hand over the Buenos Aires province site earmarked for the country’s fourth plant to a 1.2GW project designed by Argentine research facility Invap, which will use the nascent SMR technology.
“The design is Argentine and the capital to develop will be American — 100 per cent private direct foreign investment,” said Reidel, without naming the investor who will form a joint venture with Invap. “We think we can have the first plant online by 2030. From there things will move faster and we will become an SMR [technology] exporter.”