Skilled workers in Argentina’s nuclear industry, scientists, and citizens at large are enraged at news that the CAREM-25, a small, modular 25 MW nuclear reactor, whose prototype is scheduled to be completed between 2028 and 2030, has been effectively shut down, supposedly due to lack of funding. The daily El Economista Sept. 10, charged that Finance Minister Luis Caputo, a former JPMorgan financial speculator, cut funding for the project, because it interfered with his goal of achieving a primary fiscal surplus required by the IMF. At least 230 skilled workers were fired this week, and hundreds more are expected to receive “pink slips” soon, announcing firings. These are highly skilled workers—electricians, construction workers, among others—who’ve worked in the nuclear sector for years.
Almost 85% complete, the CAREM project is a special source of pride for the nuclear program, because it is designed and built with 100% Argentine technology. Discussion on the project began as early as the 1980s, but civilian construction began only in February of 2014. Today, it is in an advanced state of development, reportedly ahead of similar projects in the U.S., China, and Russia. It represented an enormous potential for Argentina as the plan was to export CAREM, with associated services, to developing countries with no access to nuclear energy and with relatively small electricity grids.
Anger over the CAREM shutdown is directly related to the fact that Argentina’s nuclear program, the oldest in Ibero-America, is, for its citizens, a matter of national sovereignty, as well as national pride. Begun in the latter part of the 1940s, the nuclear program took off after the founding of the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) in 1950, the annual anniversary of whose founding is celebrated every year as “nuclear energy day.” The expertise of Argentina’s nuclear experts has been made available to many countries—Egypt, Peru, Bolivia, Holland, Algeria. and Australia among them.
Nuclear experts cited by Tiempo Argentino Sept. 9, warned of U.S. interference in sabotaging the CAREM project, also pointing to the U.S. role in halting China’s plans to build a fourth nuclear reactor in Argentina. One scientist noted that “recently the interest of the U.S. government in stopping CAREM’s development was notable.”
