Argentina's Central Nuclear Atucha II Begins Commercial Operations

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Earlier this month, Nucleoeléctrica Argentina S.A. (Buenos Aires, Argentina) began commercial operations at the Atucha II Nuclear Power Plant, also known as Néstor Kirchner. The company connected the generator to the National Local Grid, or Sistema Interconectado Nacional.

The power plant is located in Lima, in the Zarate region, in the Buenos Aires province. It is equipped with a 745-megawatt (MW) Siemens AG (Munich, Alemania) HP/3LP serie SST-9000 steam turbine, which uses uranium and heavy water as cooling agents.

Atucha II began generating 340 MW and will be increasing it 5% each week, until it reaches its full potential.

The construction of the plant took more than 10 years, requiring a total investment of $1.5 million. Since the beginning of June, the power plant has been performing tests on the generator.

Near Atucha II, Nucleoeléctrica is planning to construct the Atucha III power plant, which has a May 2015 kick-off date. A year later, the company plans to begin the construction of Atucha IV; when completed, Argentina will have five nuclear operating power plants.

Currently, Atucha II has the largest unit capacity of Argentina.

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