At a time when the Government applies the “chainsaw” and the “blender” in large sectors of the State, he expressed his support for
“nuclear energy as a source of safe, clean and low-emission energy”
and praised
the activities of the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) and the public company INVAP
that builds reactors and radars in Bariloche.
And not just any official did it but
the Secretary of National Strategy and influential official, Brigadier (RE) Jorge Antelo,
when speaking at the atomic energy summit held last week in Brussels, Belgium.
Antelo is
a trusted man of the powerful Chief of Staff, Nicolás Posse
, and influenced the renewal of leadership of officers of the Armed Forces and the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI), after the change of government.
Furthermore, it is the first time that
he left his low profile and spoke in public
since he does not grant interviews.
Construction work of the CAREM power reactor in Zárate.
In his speech at the nuclear summit, organized by
the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Argentine Rafael Grossi
, Antelo read a speech in which he highlighted that it is “the first time that he brings together main energy actors nuclear” to debate the energy transition.
In line with the position opposed to environmental NGOs that oppose the use of nuclear energy, Antelo highlighted that
“Argentina is a country that is expanding in this field and already has 74 years of experience.”
Milei is within the current led by Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, former presidents of the United States and Brazil, which is known as climate change denialism.
Although in January, Milei traveled to Antarctica and shared with Grossi the launching ceremony of Cooperation with Argentina in the field of Nuclear Technology to control Plastic Pollution.
In Brussels, Antelo highlighted that our country already has
“an export profile”
through INVAP, which sold nuclear reactors to Australia, Egypt, Peru and Algeria, among other countries.
Before representatives from all over the world and from the Argentine nuclear industry, Antelo recalled that the “Atucha I nuclear power plant is 50 years old and
we want to renew it so that it works for 20 more years
,” thus dispelling the versions that the budget for that goal.
In addition, he praised the Argentine power reactor project called CAREM, which is in “an advanced stage of construction” and stands out for its “versatility” and was praised by the nuclear energy commission of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD) when analyzing power reactors around the world.
Antelo announced that a memorandum of understanding was signed between CNEA and INVAP to promote future CAREM export possibilities.
The senior official also reaffirmed Argentina's historic position "in pursuit of the exclusively peaceful uses of nuclear energy and as an important development objective."
He highlighted the role of the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC) to audit that uranium or plutonium enriched in both countries is not used to build atomic bombs or is exported to third parties without supervision.
- FTP CLARIN Brigadier Jorge Antelo when he was active.
The ABACC completed "almost 33 years after its creation, developed mutual trust and subjected both countries to extensive safeguards" of their nuclear facilities.
Until 1987, when former president Raúl Alfonsín invited his Brazilian counterpart José Sarney to visit the secret Pilcaniyeu uranium enrichment plant, near Bariloche, both countries were in a race to build a nuclear bomb, recalled Ambassador Maximiliano Gregorio-Cernadas.
Antelo was signed to the agreement that was signed at the beginning of the month in Bariloche.
The signing was carried out between the president of the CNEA, Adriana Serquis, and the General Manager and CEO of INVAP, Darío Giussi.
This agreement occurs within the framework of "a growing global interest in small modular reactors and their various associated applications. The international visibility of the CAREM project puts Argentina in a privileged position in this new market."
In this way, "the institutions will work together in the prospecting, exploration, development and exploitation of commercial opportunities related to CAREM and other nuclear power plants, their components, engineering, and associated and/or related services.
The CAREM reactor, developed by CNEA, is the first nuclear power reactor entirely designed in Argentina with a privileged position in the segment of low and medium power modular reactors (SMR).
At this moment, the work on the reactor demonstration plant is at a significant level of progress on a property adjacent to the Atucha Complex, located in the town of Lima, province of Buenos Aires.