Argentina and China’s plans to build nuclear plants in Argentina will go ahead, both governments agreed on principle yesterday.

Energy and Mining Minister Juan José Aranguren signed yesterday a memorandum of understanding in Beijing with Chinese Energy Minister confirming that both countries will go ahead with their construction as planned, with financing from Chinese banks.

In a press release, the Energy Ministry said two nuclear plants based on the CANDU and PWR reactor technologies would be built. The former technology is the same used in the Embalse plant in Córdoba province, while the latter is a “technological step forward in the use of enriched uranium and light water,” the Ministry said.

According to the memorandum, the construction for the former would start early in 2017, while the latter would only begin in 2019.

The plans for both of them had originally been drawn during Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s administration, but President Mauricio Macri’s government had revised some of the country’s infrastructure contracts with China, most notably its dams in Santa Cruz province, raising some doubts over their future.

Aranguren was in China for a G-20 meeting on energy sustainability, in which countries signed a document backing the promotion of renewables and the Paris anti-global warming agreements.

The Minister reported that he also met with Russian and German authorities.

Date: July 1, 2016

Source: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/217193/country%E2%80%99s-nuclear-deal-with-china-greenlighted