In the last hours, the Government confirmed that the US capital company Nano Energy intends to invest more than US$230 million in it Argentine nuclear sector. The idea, according to official sources, is to allocate these funds to the construction and development of a uranium plant that is unfinished in Formosa and that belongs to the state company Dioxitek.
In the Pink House They were excited this Thursday that this project would become the first nuclear RIGI from the Milei era.
At the same time, the Government was trying to tone down the particularity of the venture being developed in a province that is not adhered to the special investment regime promoted by mileism. The Formosa by Gildo Insfrán, as Buenos Aires and The Pampais one of the few districts that did not join.
According to sources from the Pink Houseif the company based in New York asked to join the RIGI, it would obtain national tax reductions contemplated in that program, while at the provincial level it would also obtain a reduction in the payment of Gross Income, since the unfinished plant on which the dollars would be poured is located in a technological hub which has local tax benefits.
What stage is the investment at? According to information from the Government, Nano Energy presented a private initiative before the Ministry of Economy to locate those more than US$230 million dollars in the completion of the New Dioxitek Uranium Plant in Formosa.
This is the first company to sign up with that intention and the review processes will now begin. There could be competition, in case other firms join in wanting to invest.
The Dioxitek plant located in Formosa began construction in 2014. This development was part of the Nuclear Plan 2015-2025 designed by the former president Cristina Kirchner.
The current government denounces that there was a “slow development” during the previous administrations, both of Kirchnerism and Macrism, and that the project was “devoid of funds” with Alberto Fernández. At the start of Milei’s administration, meanwhile, the opposition denounced a “total stoppage” of work and a Government investment cut in this project.
While at the time the initiative was articulated with public financing, Milei’s management now intends to apply a vision “commercial” that – they assure – “does not interfere with the national interest.”
In the investment plan currently drawn up, a first stage is planned in which the construction of the plant is completed, with a start-up of the company for the production of uranium dioxidewhich can be sold in the local market to supply the Argentine plants Atucha I, Atucha II and Embalse.
As a second instance, the bet is that a complementary facility be built and put into operation for the conversion of that uranium dioxide into uranium hexafluoride, that could be exported, according to what Dioxitek calculates.
At the moment, official sources estimate that in about “three or four years” this project could be finished, so that the first production lines begin to operate. They are also enthusiastic about the possibility of employing at least 200 people.
The agreement, they say in the Government, began with conversations between representatives of the state-owned Dioxitek and Nano Energy in August of last year, when a memorandum of understanding was signed. They say that it was sealed at Argentina Week, in which the Secretary of Nuclear Affairs participated, Federico Ramos Napoliwho before commanding that agency had been president of Dioxitek and who responds politically to the strategist Santiago Caputo.
If the investment is approved, it is expected that – once the plant is completed – Dioxitek will partner with Nano for these developments.
