Lower house ratifies Australian nuclear project
Argentina, Dec 17, 2004 -- BNamericas.com
Argentina's lower house has ratified a bilateral agreement to complete the construction of a nuclear power plant in Australia and recycle the waste in Argentina, local newspapers reported.
However, the president of the lower house's foreign relations committee, Jorge ArgA 1/4ello, defended the agreement saying that all the treated nuclear waste would return to Australia and "not one gram will remain in this country."
The constitution prohibits the entry of radioactive waste, but not other kinds of nuclear waste, ArgA 1/4ello said.
Argentina's government of Fernando de la Rúa signed an agreement in 2000 to build a nuclear reactor over a period of 5.5 years at a cost of US$180mn, similar to the one Argentina has built in Egypt.
The agreement was approved by the senate in 2001, but its final approval has been delayed by opposition to the project.
Australia chose Argentine company Invap ahead of other companies including Germany's Siemens, Canada's AECL, and France's Technicatome to build the plant in Sydney.
Some 85% of the plant has been completed and the reactor will produce one half a cubic meter, or 96 kilos, of spent fuel a year.
The agreement is for 40 years, which means 20 cubic meters of waste, "but that will return to Australia," ArgA 1/4ello said.
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