Deep budget cuts have begun to cripple Argentina’s once ambitious nuclear research and development programs. Once-thriving construction sites are dormant, and engineers with years of experience are leaving for the private sector, says Andrés Kreiner, a physicist at Argentina’s Constituyentes Atomic Centre, one of the nation’s three major nuclear research laboratories. “When people see no resources to work with, they become demoralized.”
Under President Javier Milei, who has pledged to rein in government spending as part of his plan to address Argentina’s economic crisis, funding for the nation’s National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) has dropped precipitously, from about $270 million a year to about $100 million for this year. That’s less than 40% of the amount needed to sustain CNEA’s current programs, which employ more than 3800 people and operate three nuclear power plants and six research reactors, analysts say. The agency could run out of money this summer unless it receives additional funds, they note, imperiling efforts to complete new reactors, produce medical isotopes, and create Latin America’s most advanced neutron beam facility for studying materials.
“We are facing dismantling within the nuclear sector, heading towards paralysis that jeopardizes our very existence,” says Diego Hurtado, a physicist and former vice president of CNEA who left the agency when Milei took office in December 2023.
Until the budget cuts, Argentina was striving to become South America’s leader in nuclear R&D. In recent decades, for example, CNEA launched efforts to design and build a small modular power reactor, the Argentine Center of Modular Elements (CAREM), as well as a new multipurpose research reactor called the RA-10. Both projects now face uncertainty.
The RA-10, which will replace a less powerful reactor, was scheduled to open in 2025. Delay or cancellation would have wide ramifications for researchers. The 30-megawatt reactor is supposed to produce neutrons for the Argentine Neutron Beam Laboratory (LAHN), which planners hope to make a regional hub for neutron science training and experiments. Among other activities, researchers planned to use LAHN’s beamline to test fuel rods and other materials used in nuclear reactors. They also hope to irradiate silicon with the neutrons, creating “doped” silicon that could be sold to the semiconductor industry.
In addition, the RA-10 would produce radioisotopes used in medicine, including some that can’t currently be made in Argentina. The country could lose “the capacity to sustain the entire production chain [for medical isotopes] if the economic situation is not reversed,” says Natalia Stankevicius, manager of the Radioisotope Production and Radiation Applications Area at CNEA. Argentina has already spent more than $400 million on the RA-10, and officials say an additional $80 million is needed to finish it.
Other teams working in nuclear medicine are also concerned about their future. One is just 2 years away from completing a particle accelerator for boron neutron capture therapy, a treatment for certain cancers. Another needs about $6 million to complete the Argentine Proton Therapy Center in Buenos Aires, the first facility of its kind in Latin America. “It would be very painful if this project does not come to fruition,” says Jesuana Aizcorbe, president of the Center for Nuclear and Molecular Medicine Entre Ríos. But, she adds, “It’s difficult to be optimistic.”
There is also renewed doubt about the fate of CAREM, which has seen numerous delays since it was first proposed in the 1980s. Planner hoped the plant, to be completed in 2027, would provide electricity to remote areas and industrial parks, as well as power desalination plants in coastal areas with limited freshwater. The project has already cost more than $600 million, and completing it is expected to cost an additional $300 million. To raise money, the government is reportedly exploring privatizing existing Argentina’s nuclear power plants, which provide less than 10% of the nation’s electricity. But the CAREM construction site near the city of Zárate is already quiet, as spending cuts have forced builders to lay off workers.
