Speaking Dec. 20 from the presidential palace, President Javier Milei announced the launching of a “new” nuclear program which will focus on generating large quantities of nuclear energy to fuel data centers for artificial intelligence. There is even talk of creating an Argentine “Silicon Valley” operation in the cooler Patagonia region. A second stage of the plan will be to develop uranium reserves to cover domestic demand and position the country as an exporter of high-value-added fuel elements. After “decades of decline,” Milei said, nuclear energy would see a “triumphant return … and we intend to be pioneers,” but this pioneering is clearly headed toward privatizing the most advanced nuclear program in Ibero-America under the guise of revolutionary change.
As experts in the field point out, during his year in office Milei has gutted the budget of the state-run nuclear program with his “chainsaw” austerity program, slashing wages so dramatically that large numbers of highly-skilled personnel were forced out of their jobs while crucial projects, such as the Argentine designed and built CAREM-25 small nuclear reactor (SMR) prototype, under construction for ten years, was shut down due to lack of funding. The government only covered 49% of the 2023-2024 budget for the nuclear sector. Nuclear personnel are furious at Milei’s hypocrisy and his claims to be doing something new.
That Milei has appointed the chairman of his Council of Advisors, Demian Reidel, as the brains behind this new AI policy is revealing. Nominally a nuclear physicist who graduated from Argentina’s prestigious Balseiro Institute, Reidell is a former JPMorgan trader and hedge fund manager suspected of carrying out dodgy financial operations while working on Wall Street. As Milei’s top adviser, he will push a nuclear sector deprived of financing toward privatization, based on bringing in large amounts of foreign private investment to fund a free-market AI drive. Foreign tech companies are salivating over the prospects of moving into the country.
