The Embalse Nuclear Power Station () is one of three operational

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP), also known as a nuclear power station (NPS), nuclear generating station (NGS) or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power st ...

s in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. It is located on the southern shore of a

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

on the Río Tercero, near the city of Embalse, Córdoba, 110 km south-southwest of Córdoba City. The plant is a

CANDU The CANDU (CANada Deuterium Uranium) is a Canadian pressurized heavy-water reactor design used to generate electric power. The acronym refers to its deuterium oxide (heavy water) neutron moderator, moderator and its use of (originally, natural ...

Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR). It employs

natural uranium Natural uranium (NU or Unat) is uranium with the same isotopic ratio as found in nature. It contains 0.711% uranium-235, 99.284% uranium-238, and a trace of uranium-234 by weight (0.0055%). Approximately 2.2% of its radioactivity comes from ura ...

(that is, with 0.72% of ²³⁵U) and uses

heavy water Heavy water (deuterium oxide, , ) is a form of water (molecule), water in which hydrogen atoms are all deuterium ( or D, also known as ''heavy hydrogen'') rather than the common hydrogen-1 isotope (, also called ''protium'') that makes up most o ...

for cooling and neutron moderation. It has a thermal power of 2,109 MW_th, and generates 648 MW_e of electricity, with a net output of about 600 MW_e, supplying nearly 4.5% of the production of the

Argentine Interconnection System The Argentine Interconnection System (Spanish: ''Sistema Argentino de Interconexión'', SADI) is a wide area synchronous grid that links the regional networks of all Argentinian provinces, with the exception of Tierra del Fuego Province, Argenti ...

(2005). Additionally, Embalse produces the

cobalt-60 Cobalt-60 (Co) is a synthetic radioactive isotope of cobalt with a half-life of 5.2714 years. It is produced artificially in nuclear reactors. Deliberate industrial production depends on neutron activation of bulk samples of the monoisotop ...

radioisotope, which is employed in medicine (cancer therapy) and industrial applications. Argentina is one of the largest producers and exporters of this isotope in the world, along with

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Embalse was started in 1974 and began operation in 1983 (first criticality 13 March 1983, declared commercial 20 January 1984). It was built by an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

-Canadian consortium formed by

AECL Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL, Énergie atomique du Canada limitée, EACL) is a Canadian Crown corporation and the largest nuclear science and technology laboratory in Canada. AECL developed the CANDU reactor technology starting in the ...

, acting as the "turn-key" supplier of the nuclear portion, and Italimpianti, the "turn-key" supplier of the conventional portion. On 31 December 2015, the plant was taken offline, having completed its first operating cycle of about 30 years. On 1 September 2016, the plant received the last two of four

steam generators A steam generator is a form of low water-content boiler (steam generator), boiler, similar to a flash steam boiler. The usual construction is as a spiral coil of water-tube boiler, water-tube, arranged as a single, or monotube boiler, monotube, c ...

, fundamental elements for the life extension of the plant. The plant was reconditioned to deliver power for another 30 years: the replacement of the four steam generators was one of the key steps. The plant was restarted on 4 January 2019, with power upgraded to a gross capacity of 683 MW and 635 MW net.

References

* * * Nuclear power stations in Argentina Science and technology in Argentina Nuclear power stations using CANDU reactors {{powerstation-stub

See also

References