Argentina is showing a renewed and ambitious interest in reactivating its uranium mining and expanding its nuclear energy program, which would allow it to expand its capacity to generate clean, stable, and scalable energy through the construction of new reactors to power high-energy-demand sectors like artificial intelligence.

Around the world, nuclear energy is in a stage of revaluation within the framework of the energy transition, but particularly because it is considered a promising option to meet the growing global demand.

That’s because its high density allows a small amount of uranium that feeds nuclear power plants to produce energy equivalent to tons of coal or thousands of cubic meters of natural gas.

In addition, the nuclear resource has other recognized advantages, such as constant and predictable base generation – unlike renewables – that during their operation nuclear power plants do not emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and that can adjust their production to balance the electrical grid, facilitating integration with other sources.

After being almost discarded in Europe for fear of incidents like the one in Japan, nuclear energy managed to overcome all prejudices and is once again considered a clean and reliable energy.

But the development of new technologies is providing a much-appreciated solution with the development of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and research into nuclear fusion, which promises to make nuclear energy even safer, more efficient, more economical and with more optimized waste management.

SMRs, being smaller and mass-produced, could reduce construction costs and deployment time, allowing for greater flexibility and scalability in energy generation. And Argentina has the expectation and the capacity to join that global race, in which only a few countries are prepared to participate.

With these new sizes, the construction time of a nuclear power plant would be reduced by more than half. Even “micro reactors” are already being worked on that could be added to large industrial plants.

The idea of using SMRs to power Artificial Intelligence data centers is an emerging and very promising trend in the technology and energy sector, an interest that is explained by the enormous and growing energy demand of global digitalization, along with the need for clean and reliable energy sources.

Argentina has a distinguished track record in the development of nuclear energy.

They are also scalable technologies. A nuclear plant can house two or three modular reactors without the need for large extra investments.

The milestones of an ambitious nuclear plan