Atucha I Nuclear Power Plant

F1

Active reactors ( gross ):

Reactors under construction ( gross ):

The nuclear power plant Atucha (Spanish Central Nuclear Atucha, CNA ) is a Near Zárate ( Buenos Aires province ) located Argentine nuclear power plant. The other Argentine NPP is the Embalse nuclear power plant. The power station consists of two reactor blocks.

Block 1 was on 19 March 1974. Busy with the construction was largely the German Kraftwerk Union AG. The power plant has a net electric power of about 335 MW. Atucha -1 is a so-called heavy water pressurized reactor ( PHWR ). The special feature of this type of reactor is that it can be operated with natural uranium, which must not be enriched ( about 0.7 % uranium -235 content), but this complicates the design of the reactor. Today, the plant uses slightly enriched uranium with a share of 0.85 percent, thereby reducing the cost of power plant operation could be reduced by about 40 percent. In 2000, Germany granted a Hermes guarantee on repairs in the reactor block 1

Block 2 is not completed since the 1979 Planning and Construction, 1981 ( as of February 2014). The project was originally a joint venture between CNEA (the National Atomic Energy Agency ) and the Kraftwerk Union began in 1994 have been stopped. It lacked funds to complete the set up to 81 percent power plant. In the same year the nuclear power plants of the CNEA were adopted by the Nucleoelectrica Argentina SA, a subsidiary organization of the Ministry of Economy. In 2003, plans were finally submitted, after which the reactor for 400 million U.S. dollars will be finished built in cooperation with German, Spanish and Brazilian companies.

And Figure 2 is a Atucha PHWR, but with an increased to 692 MW electrical output.

Atucha 1 during construction

Atucha 2 during construction

Aerial view of Atucha 2

Data of the reactor units

The nuclear power plant Atucha has a total of two blocks: