Argentina signs nuclear deal

Waste from the reactor could be sent to Argentina

Australia and Argentina have signed a nuclear energy treaty allowing nuclear waste to be shipped to and processed in the South American country.

The deal comes after an Argentine company INVAP last year won the contract to design and build a A$286m ($148m) replacement for an ageing nuclear research reactor in Lucas Heights, Sydney.

Officials said the new reactor, like the old one, would be purely a research facility.

Argentina has agreed to accept spent fuel rods from the new reactor if they can no longer be sent to France after court action earlier this year temporarily stopped shipments.

Atomic fears

The proposal to build the new reactor faces opposition from both local residents and a Senate committee, which has said its construction could not be justified on any grounds.

Lucas Heights has been in operation since 1958

But the Australian government insists medical and scientific research would be impeded if the old reactor was not replaced.

The CAREM (advanced small nuclear power plant) reactor being developed by INVAP is capable of producing 25MWe of electrical power.

Lucas Heights, which is run by the state-owned Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, is the only functioning nuclear reactor in Australia and has been operational since 1958.

Argentine nuclear industry

The contract, which was awarded to INVAP in July 2000 by the government of John Howard, gives the company its first client for a reactor in the industrialised world.

INVAP has built reactors in Algeria, Cuba and Egypt, but had to pull out of a contract with Iran to supply nuclear materials after objections from the US.

The company was rejected by Thailand as a bidder on a similar research reactor to that planned for Australia, and its order book was almost empty before it won the Lucas Heights contract.

INVAP has faced court proceedings in Argentina for running tests which were allegedly illegal on the new prototype reactor.