CNEA future is to start transferring generic technology to the industrial sector of Argentine SMEs to increase competitiveness, with the aim of improving employment, such as space or medicine for the SME sector.
One of the prides of the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) is the multipurpose nuclear reactor RA-10, which exceeds those used in the atomic centers of Ezeiza, Constituyentes and Bariloche and takes the country to the third place in the world in production of technology for health and industry.
The civil work began two years ago at the Ezeiza Atomic Center and they promise to start operating in the second half of 2020. Once in operation, it will ensure 100 percent of the supply of radioisotopes for the diagnosis and treatment of different diseases. transmissible as cancer, guaranteeing production capacity and ensuring uninterrupted supply for the national market and a good part of Latin America.
“The design of the RA-10 reactor began in 2010 in order to ensure that there are radioisotopes for the local market, to export to the international market and to expand our capacity for technological development, research in basic sciences and applications based on the use of advanced neutron techniques. ” , explained Alberto Lamagna, vice president of the CNEA.
“The RA-10 is a reactor for the research and production of radioisotopes, which has several applications, from nuclear medicine to the doping of sackcloth for the construction of chips,” he said.
According to the model of scientific cooperation, the RA-10 is being built by INVAP, in Bariloche, while the CNEA provides the essentially nuclear developments and trains future operators in the Atomic Center located in Ezeiza.
“With the RA-10 our country will be at the top of the developments of this type of reactors worldwide, following a line of technological evolution whose immediate reference is the OPAL project, the most modern radioisotope production reactor that Argentina -a through INVAP- built for Australia in 2007 and this year sold to Holland, “he said.
In terms of scientific and technological development, the project’s facilities are also used for the training of professionals and technicians and allow research in basic sciences and technological applications based on the use of neutron techniques for biotechnology, drugs and materials.
