Overview
- Meitner Energy formally presented the proposal to Economy Minister Luis Caputo on Thursday, offering US$1.2 billion in private U.S. financing to build a 300 MWe ACR-300 small modular reactor at the Atucha complex.
- The ACR-300 is described by officials as a Generation III+ pressurized-water SMR developed by Argentine engineers and intended as a first commercial 'first of a kind' unit rather than a research prototype.
- Meitner is reported to involve the Ansari Group and a partnership with local firm Invap (about 40% local participation), and the deal envisions Meitner paying a surface-right canon while Nucleoeléctrica Argentina keeps the option to operate and maintain the plant under market terms.
- The company plans to seek inclusion in the Súper RIGI incentive regime but the project remains conditional on Economy Ministry approval, ARN licensing and possible Senate action on Súper RIGI before construction, which the government estimates would take about five years and create roughly 2,000 direct jobs.
- The announcement comes during a tense moment for Argentina's nuclear sector after the government did not renew 61 CNEA contracts, a dispute that has shaped public debate about private investment, staffing and the future role of state nuclear institutions and that different outlets frame either as a shift to private-led investment or as a risky change for public capacity.