2023-05-30 01:09:22
APU: What is the RA-3 reactor?
NS: It is a reactor that was created in 1967, which initially had a power of 0.5 MW. In 2003, repowering was carried out, it was brought to 10 MW to increase production. It is a multipurpose reactor, in which the production of radioisotopes is carried out and research and development is carried out in different fields of production. We are advancing in the production of other radioisotopes that are not only for diagnosis, but also for treatment. If we achieve that, we would be not only detecting cancer, but advancing in the cure.
APU: What is the status of that project?
NS: It is necessary to move forward with this project because the RA-10, a much larger reactor that will allow us to go from producing 200 curies per day to 2,000. To give you an idea, world consumption of molybdenum is around 9,500 and we would go on to produce 2,000. In addition, it has the capacity to produce doped silicon, which is used in chips, and it has an associated project that is neutron beams, which is of relevant international interest.
APU: What place does Argentina occupy, worldwide, within the sector?
NS: It depends if we think about it from the energy or production point of view. Actually, they are powers, the majority. We are talking about the United States, France, Japan, Canada, Australia, all first world countries. Both Argentina and Brazil are very well positioned in a strategic place at the regional level, our country is very advanced in nuclear matters for our region. Generations, since 1950, working so that this is sustained, maintained and improved.
APU: How is the sector made up?
NS: The reality is that the nuclear sector was one, historically. The CONEA, which regulated and carried out. Today it is an ecosystem of entities. I am missing adding the Federal Nuclear Medicine Plan, where other actors appear and there is beginning to be accessibility to Public Health, in that sense. It happens that everything is interrelated, technological development is carried out in CONEA, but it needs the rest of the actors. For example, to operate a reactor, the fuels manufactured in CONUAR are needed, to be able to operate the semi-industrial radiation plant, the cobalt produced by Dioxitek is needed, and regulatory matters are carried out by the Nuclear Regulatory Authority. Obviously, there are difficulties, but we have shown in the long run that despite the differences that may exist within that ecosystem, the country continues to advance.
APU: What policies should the State carry out in this sector?
NS: It should be part of the policy of State to recover the strategic line of what would be uranium mining. Argentina dreamed of a closed cycle and this would imply from obtaining the uranium to its recovery, using the fuel elements. What has to do with matters of health and technological development of reactors, that the investment be sustained over time. There are windows of opportunity. With the RA-10 we are at a moment in which if we achieve this challenge, we have a unique opportunity because in the world there are other reactors that are going to go out of service and molybdenum is going to be a worldwide requirement.. And this requires public policies of the State. In the world there is no possibility of reactors that work without state investment. Sometimes, it seems as if technological development could be done from end to end with private capital and that is not real, when it comes to carrying out strategic projects.
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