We're being turned into an energy colony': Argentina's nuclear plan faces backlash over US interests

"On an outcrop above the Chubut River, one of the few to cut across the arid Patagonian steppe of southern Argentina, Sergio Pichinan points across a wide swath of scrubland to colourful rock formations on a distant hillside. That's where they dug for uranium before, and when the miners left, they left the mountain destroyed, the houses abandoned, and nobody ever studied the water, he says, citing suspicions arising from cases of cancer and skin diseases in his community."

"Pichinan lives in Cerro Condor, a hamlet with a sparse Indigenous Mapuche population due to the area's harsh summers, cold winters and little rain. The National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) mined uranium here in the 1970s and it is now in focus as President Javier Milei aims to shift Argentina's nuclear strategy. The remote region sees few visitors, but in November, a delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency visited as part of an Integrated Uranium Production Cycle Review."

"Yet the plan is facing fierce criticism from both pro- and anti-nuclear voices. Argentina's non-military nuclear programme is 75 years old. It exports research reactors that produce isotopes for medical radiology and science, and its three nuclear plants Atucha I and II and Embalse provide about 5% of the country's electricity. Exporting uranium isn't an Argentine nuclear plan; it's banana republic-style mining"

Sergio Pichinan reports that 1970s uranium mining by the National Atomic Energy Commission left mountains destroyed, houses abandoned, and no water testing despite suspected cancer and skin disease cases in Cerro Condor. Cerro Solo is one of CNEA's largest proven uranium deposits and restarting its mining is the first step in President Javier Milei's nuclear plan. The plan proposes developing small modular reactors to power AI datacentres, exporting reactors and uranium, and partially privatising state utility Nucleoelectrica. The proposal has drawn fierce criticism from both pro- and anti-nuclear voices. Argentina's civilian nuclear programme exports research reactors and supplies about 5% of electricity.

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