China signs $8 billion deal to build nuclear plant in Argentina

State-owned China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) has signed a contract in Argentina to build the $8 billion Atucha III nuclear power plant using Chinese Hualong One technology, reactivating a deal that had been stalled for years.

CNNC said on its WeChat account on Tuesday that it has signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract, which precedes Argentine President Alberto Fernandez’s trip to China later this week.

Progress on a nuclear deal between the two countries has stalled since it was first negotiated by the government of former President Cristina Kirchner, who left office in 2015. She is now Argentina’s vice president.

The Argentine government said in a statement that the construction project “involves an investment of more than US$ 8 billion” for the engineering, construction, acquisition, commissioning and delivery of an HPR-1000 type reactor.

“Atucha III will have a gross power of 1,200 MW, with an initial useful life of 60 years and will allow the expansion of national nuclear capacities”, he informed, adding that construction is expected to begin at the end of this year.

Details of the financing of the nuclear power plant deal were not available. The reactor will be installed in the city of Lima, in the province of Buenos Aires.

China has developed the Hualong One, the third generation of a nuclear reactor technology, to rival the AP1000 developed by Westinghouse and Europe’s EPR (Evolutionary Pressurized Reactor) technology.

China has started operating its own Hualong One reactor in southeastern China’s Fujian province. The Argentina project will be the second overseas site using Hualong One technology after Pakistan.