2006 Argentine nuclear reactivation plan

The 2006 Argentine nuclear reactivation plan is a project to renew and reactivate the development of nuclear power in Argentina. The main points of the plan were announced by the Argentine government through Planning Minister Julio de Vido during a press conference on 23 August 2006.^[1][2] They include:

• Finishing the incomplete Atucha II Nuclear Power Plant, which was started on July 14, 1981. Construction was halted in 1994, and resumed in late 2006. Atucha II was scheduled to start up in 2012.^[3] The plant began to produce energy on June 27, 2014.^[4] It reached its first criticality on June 3, 2014; the first grid connection was on June 25, 2014; the first commercial operation began on May 26, 2016.
• Researching the feasibility of the construction of a fourth nuclear plant in Argentina.
• Extending the operational life of the Embalse power plant, originally projected to end in 2011.
• Resuming the domestic production of enriched uranium. The reactor has a net capacity of 693 MWe and a gross capacity of 745 MWe.
• Working on a prototype CAREM, a low-power nuclear reactor^[5] which could also be installed in one of the TR-1700 class submarines

In 2010, an agreement was signed with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) for the construction of Atucha III Nuclear Power Plant and the upgrade of Embalse ^[6] A C$440m contract was signed in August 2011 for the refurbishment of Embalse from November 2013, which will add 25–30 years to its life.