Source: Linkedin News
By: Aldo Leporati
04.10.2018
After 5 Years of Negotiations, Argentina and China finally reached an agreement on the construction of the nuclear power plant Atucha III. The final deal contains a small detail, as the power station will cost us$ 1.6 billion less than initially expected to, when the deal was set by Cristina Kirchner’s government. The nuclear plant was calculated at a cost of us$ 7.4 billion (with some irregularities, a large amount of local costs which were not clear and needed to be adjusted) when the deal was reached by the former minister of production Julio de Vido. With the new agreement, and the station being built conjointly with China and Canada, the project will only cost us$ 5.8 billion.
Argentina has three nuclear stations working today: the two power plants on the Atucha complex, as well as the Embalse station. Macri’s government plans to sign the final treaty with China during the G20 summit, as in addition of the construction of Atucha III, the deal would also include the construction of a fifth power station in the country. They hope to finalize this part of the arrangement in May in order to start the construction of Atucha III by 2019.
The financing of the power plant will be divided between the 3 countries included in the agreement. China will provide us$ 2.2 billion of the funding, Canada nearly us$ 800,000, and Argentina will finance the rest. The other main differences between this contract and the one signed by Kirchner’s government is the local labor force, which will increase up to 40%. Moreover, the new agreement is now based on Argentine law, which means that in case of any juridical issues, it will be settled in the country.
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