BUENOS AIRES (Dow Jones)–Argentine President Cristina Kirchner on Wednesday celebrated the completion of construction work on the country’s third nuclear power plant, almost three decades years after work on the plant began.
The Atucha II plant will be fully operational in six to eight months and will add 745 megawatts to the national power grid. It will boost total nuclear output to almost 1,700MW, making it responsible for 10% of all electrical power in the country.
«I feel very emotional about this,» Kirchner said in a speech at the plant. She said Atucha II’s construction symbolizes the return of a strong state that invests heavily in strategically important infrastructure projects.
Argentina’s military government laid the plant’s first brick in 1982. But by 1986, with and an abundant supply of natural gas and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on peoples’ minds, the government suspended construction.
«This place was filled with owls and rats when they opened it up because it had been shut down since 1986,» Kirchner said.
In 2006, Kirchner’s husband and predecessor, President Nestor Kirchner, oversaw the return of work at the plant, saying nuclear power was key to Argentina’s future.
Since then, the government invested ARS10.2 billion ($2.42 billion) to finish building the plant.
The construction, which at one point involved 6,200 people working simultaneously, has coincided with a major increase in government spending on power generation.
But it has also dovetailed with a long period of scarce private-sector investment, which industry executives blame on the government’s energy polices, namely price caps on oil, gas and electricity.
The lack of private-sector investment led eight of Argentina’s former energy secretaries to criticize the government for turning the country into an energy importer.
Former energy secretary Alieto Guadagni said this has been the worst decade for energy in the past 100 years.
Oil production fell 18% between 2003 and 2010 to about 34 million cubic meters, according to a document released by the former secretaries. Proven oil reserves fell 11% to 393 million cubic meters. Meanwhile, natural gas production fell 43% to 379 billion cubic meters in 2010, while reserves fell 8% to about 47 billion cubic meters, according to the report.
Argentina’s imports of natural gas, fuel oil and diesel have soared in recent years as the country’s own supply has failed to keep up with the rapidly rising demand for energy. Meanwhile, the country’s energy matrix has shifted and become more dependent on thermal generation and less reliant on hydropower or nuclear generation.
But Argentine officials say the country’s shifting energy needs are a consequence of booming economic growth and evidence that the government’s economic model is working well.
Planning Minister Julio De Vido and Economy Minister Amado Boudou have slammed the former energy secretaries, saying that none of them ever pushed nuclear technology.
The government plans for a fourth plant, which will likely be called Atucha III, to be operational in 2016-2017. It will add about 1,500MW to the power grid.
-By Taos Turner, Dow Jones Newswires; 5411-4103-6728; taos.turner@dowjones.com