Alberto Lamagna, from Nucleoeléctrica: “Incorporating private capital into the company can give it new growth projection”

Lamagna has 35 years of experience in the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), where he spent three different stages: a decade developing solar cells and photovoltaic panels for satellites; another 10 years in micro and nanotechnologies, and more than 12 years leading a team specialized in laser uranium enrichment, the most advanced technology on a laboratory scale, in addition to centrifuge and gaseous diffusion.

Journalist: What are the axes of your management at the head of Nucleoeléctrica?

Alberto Lamagna: Initiate the life extension of Atucha I and begin a process of incorporating private capital into the company of up to 49%, those are the axes of my management. In the first two months I sought to consolidate the issue of life extension, an objective that was met: the Government is convinced of extending the life of a nuclear power plant, the first in Latin America, because it will deliver safe and basic energy for 20 years more.

Journalist: They already got financing for the extension…

TO THE: Yes, there is financing for this year and next year, with many possibilities of obtaining credits from different organizations. Different variants are being analyzed to leverage the project, but it has already been decided and we are doing it.

Journalist: What would the incorporation of private capital into the company be like?

TO THE: If you want to incorporate private capital into a state company, which has three nuclear power plants and one of them has begun the “revamping” process, you have to invest first and that is what is happening. In our case, we are able to incorporate 49% of private capital, which comes at a time of great opportunities, business and investments in the nuclear sector in the world, particularly driven by the need for energy that data centers have. and artificial intelligence.

Journalist: Where do you perceive this interest in nuclear energy?

TO THE: In fact, Microsoft bought Three Mile Islands to reactivate it, the symbol of the nuclear stoppage of the United States, is now turned around by the imperative and urgent energy need for base energy, which is nuclear. And that decision is driving a lot of investments in the world, but especially in the Northern hemisphere. And for us it is a great opportunity, we must leverage private capital to develop the nuclear industry in Argentina.

Journalist: Is there room for that to happen?

TO THE: It can happen, private companies can manage 49% of NASA as a utility, which is what they call it, as a provider of electrical energy, but they can also join projects. Argentina is fortunate to have two nuclear sites enabled socially and by infrastructure, connected to the network. We talked about it in Vienna before the Vienna Group and the other representatives of nuclear companies were interested, the world is very effervescent about this, we must develop this business opportunity. Incorporating private capital can give continuity to the projection of the nuclear industry. Furthermore, in the last week The Argentine Nuclear Plan was launched under the direction of Demian Reidel giving a concrete projection to what I had been commenting on.

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Nucleoelectrica Argentina SA was present at the meeting of the Vienna Group, the initiative of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The meeting was led by the Director General of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi.

Journalist: Is the 49% opening more convenient than one partner and many?

TO THE: One option is to go public with 49%, but in the first stage a low percentage to be able to measure the market, to see how they see the company. Another option is an international public tender. But before defining the way, it is advisable to carry out a national and international consulting process where we see what the best business model and process of incorporating private capital is like in the current situation. See what is best to give sustainability to the entire company. nuclear power in Argentina. The idea is to give it a future projection driven by private capital in the nuclear spring that we have to live now.

Journalist: What can the country benefit from in this Nuclear Spring?

TO THE: If we know how to take advantage of it and if this nuclear spring is really all that is being seen in the newspapers, the opportunity that Argentina has is unique. And in addition to, obviously, supporting the Argentine nuclear project and generating, for example, the possibility of having a new plant. But also Nuclear Today it has a very strong engineering and technical group that was trained in the construction of a nuclear power plant, Atucha II, and this entire group is providing services to companies of Brazil, Romania and Canada, that need hours of engineering that they do not have. Recently, we had 23 technicians from the Plant Services Management assisting in a scheduled Angra outage.

Aerial view Atucha Site.JPG

Nuclear

Journalist: What state is CAREM in?

TO THE: To know the status of the reactor CAREM You have to ask the CNEA, because we act on behalf and order, of what they say. The engineering design authority of the CAREM It is the CNEA, we are the builders. It is like a building, there is the architect and the builder: we act on behalf of and by order of the CNEA, we build the reactor indicated by the detailed engineering of CNEA.

Journalist: Don’t we have uranium in Argentina?

TO THE: Yes, but there is no commercial uranium mining.

Journalist: But we have uranium mines…

TO THE: Yes, that is another issue that this Government will surely promote through the Nuclear Plan. When Argentina says that it has the entire fuel cycle complete, in reality uranium mining and enrichment is on a pilot plant or laboratory scale. Specifically, with respect to uranium mining and uranium enrichment, although we have the “knowledge” of the entire fuel cycle, it would be necessary to enter the industrial part.

Carem render

Carem (Argentine Central of Modular Elements) made headlines because the national government disaffected construction workers. The project is in charge of CONEA.

Journalist: What advantages would it have if we have uranium mining and uranium enrichment?

TO THE: You could export to the world. Strategically and geopolitically we would be much more powerful if we had uranium enrichment and mining would give us a new component of the nuclear business. We could produce for ourselves, that is, not import the uranium, but produce our own uranium from our mines and export to the world that with this Nuclear Spring that is coming there will be great needs for uranium and enriched uranium. If there is this projection that the plants will be tripled, after the news of the Artificial intelligence that will need nuclear energy, they are saying that they are going to triple the capacity. But let’s assume that doubling it and starting to activate uranium mining, an enrichment factory, will no longer be enough. The price is going to start to rise because demand is going to rise. And if we start, for example, uranium mining, Argentine potential could double or triple.

Journalist: How would you like to be remembered at the end of your tenure at NASA?

TO THE: As the professional who guided, oriented, the incorporation of private capital to Nuclear so that nuclear activity is strengthened and given projection for the next 20 years. Both for the generation of energy and for new nuclear projects, such as the generation of radioisotopes, that the engineering group continues to grow and even be able to set up an engineering service company that provides services on a global scale in this renaissance of the nuclear sector. .