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OUR PRESENT
INVAP’s story in nuclear engineering is simple but eloquent. The company started operations by building the RA-6 reactor for the Argentine Commission of Atomic Energy (CNEA) in 1985, and rapidly went international by taking part in the building of RP0 and RP10, a couple of research reactors in Perú. In 1987 INVAP was awarded the construction of the NUR reactor in Algeria, and in 1994, became the successful bidder in a competition with the leading companies in the world for the construction of the ETRR-2 reactor in Egypt. This achievement was quickly followed by our winning the bid for the OPAL Replacement Research Reactor in Australia in 2001, a very complex facility which we recently completed, turned critical and handed over to the local nuclear authorities.
In every case this company from Bariloche, Argentine Patagonia, succeeded by offering the best possible, cutting-edge technology. In fact, the OPAL reactor, now owned by ANSTO (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation), will be the most modern and complete facility in its type worlwide for a long time. And probably the safest too.
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Research reactors are complex instruments used in different research fields: they train nuclear engineers, physicists and chemists, they test materials, and also manufacture semiconductors, radioisotopes, and radioactive chemicals for medical and industrial use.
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All of the reactors built by INVAP are used to manufacture radioisotopes, although at quite different scales, ranging from experimental or personnel training purpouses to fully industrial operations. Reactors aside, INVAP has already sold several radioisotope management facilities. In these, the reactor-produced radioactive substances are handled by means of master-slave manipulators, fractionated, chemically formulated, packed, and distributed for use in medical diagnosis and therapy, and also for industrial and agricultural means. |
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Of the four radioisotope plants in whose construction INVAP took part, one is located in Argentina (CELCA-PIE, at the Ezeiza Atomic Center), and three abroad, namely: CENTIS of Gamma Investments, Cuba; INSHAS, sold to the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority, under construction next to the ETRR-2 reactor; and the laboratory-scale plant built for Algeria’s High Research Commissioner, operating inside the NUR reactor building. The hot-cells at Australia’s OPAL are of our own make too.
All the works awarded to INVAP were delivered with no delays whatsoever, to the full satisfaction of the client, and operate normally.
OUR PAST
The road to INVAP’s international success began in Argentina with a first reactor commissioned by the Argentine Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), the RA-6, and built in the early 1980s in San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro.
This work, serving as “showroom”, and the strong decision to export notwithstanding an unfavorable exchange and credit context, led INVAP to become a world contender in its field during the 1990s.
While this took place, INVAP built the RA-8 in Pilcaniyeu (also in the province of Río Negro, and for CNEA). This was the second Argentine reactor entirely built by the country´s own effort, and the bench to test the fuel for the most ambitious technological project in the country, the future CAREM power station.
The sound engineering, punctuality, and low construction costs evidenced with the RA-6 reactor allowed INVAP to take part in the construction of the RP-0 and RP-10 reactors in Huarangal, Peru, during the 1980s. As CNEA contractor, these reactors marked INVAP’s first experience in the exportation of nuclear technology.
All in all, RA-6 was one the finest investments that Argentina made on itself. After over two decades since its construction, it remains the “training grounds” for future nuclear engineers. At a cost of USD 30 million, it has yielded exports for some USD 400 million
OUR FUTURE
Now, in its new position among the first world suppliers of small reactors, INVAP begins the 21st century making its debut in three nuclear areas, namely: maintenance, repair, and fuel cycle services for large nuclear power stations throughout the world. And it also offers its own third-generation and “inherently-safe” compact station model. |
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This is a good time to offer services: since 2001, a nuclear power plant retrofitting trend is being registered in the US. This means the full repair and modernization of installations close to their 30 years of service, their normal programmed lifetime. After a comprehensive update, instead of being shut down and decommissioned, the plant may be re-licensed to continue in operation for yet another 15 to 20 years.
The US has an installed capacity of 104,000 nuclear megawatts, and no plant built after than 1973. In this large emerging “retrofitting” market, INVAP would have merits to become main or associate contractor.
As a matter of fact, in 1987 and 1988, INVAP took part together with CNEA in the brain-demanding task of repairing Argentina’s first power station, CNA-I, (known as Atucha 1), in the province of Buenos Aires. This 350 MW unit went back to service for 8.5% of the repair cost budgeted by its original supplier, and has operated normally ever since.
In 2000, INVAP worked again in the same station side by side with CNEA and NA-SA (Nucleoeléctrica Argentina, SA, operator of the Argentine nuclear power stations) to repair the moderator cooling circuit, the most highly radioactive sector of the primary circuit. In 2002, together with Babcock & Wilcox, a Canadian vendor, INVAP replaced the separators of the steam generators of CNE, (Embalse, a 600 MW CANDU unit located in the province of Córdoba).
From these participations, INVAP gathered experience and developed an exclusive set of remotely guided tools known as REMA, capable of carrying out accurate metal-mechanic operations in quite small “radiologically hot” spaces of difficult access without major disassembly requirements, using as access the scanty primary circuit service penetrations. REMA allows the nuclear equivalent of endoluminal surgery: to operate without opening.
Yet another service provided to nuclear power stations concerns the “dry” storage of spent fuel elements, namely INVAP’s ASECQ system, currently used at CNE In this temporary surface confinement, the fuels removed from the cooling pool may spend up to 50 years waiting for their final geological destination without posing any radiation risk. The 16 CANDU reactors presently running throughout the world are the potential market for this local development.
One of the most remarkable products offered by INVAP is the only power station wholly designed in Argentina, the CAREM, a small 27,5 MW plant. This is a third generation or “inherently-safe” station, which may also be designed of a larger size (up to 350 MW apiece). Furthermore, CAREM is modular: several similar units may be coupled to add power. The construction of a first prototype on Argentine soil remains a pending issue to the nation.
The reward for the completion of such issue could prove to be substantial. If research reactors represent a side niche within the nuclear market, power stations are its heart. Only a handful of small reactors were sold throughout the world during the 1990s, but there are 36 power stations under construction to date, and for sums that are incomparably higher.
The CAREM is the only Argentine answer to this huge market. Although its revolutionarily simple and safe design is already being copied by companies from Japan, South Korea, and the US, the Argentine supply remains more viable than its imitations because our project is more developed.
The export potential for CAREM has been conservatively estimated between 4 to 20 units, which for Argentina would mean cashing from 400 million to 2 billion dollars, and the creation of a new niche of its own in the nuclear station market.
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