Argentina signed contracts worth $444 million on Wednesday with a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin Group (SNC.TO), Canada's top engineering firm, to extend the shelf-life of its Embalse nuclear plant.
The contracts signed by the government, state-owned Nucleoelectrica Argentina, and Candu Energy Inc — the SNC-Lavalin subsidiary — involve the transfer of Canadian technology and help developing the local manufacture of reactor components.
The government aims to extend the plant's working life by about 30 years, at a total cost of $1.37 billion, Planning Minister Julio De Vido told a news conference.
The Embalse plant came on line in 1984 and is located in the central province of Cordoba. It uses natural uranium and has a production capacity of 648 megawatts. For a factbox please see [ID:nN09115957]
The overhaul will take a total of five years and will require a shutdown of the plant of roughly 20 months, starting in November 2013, according to a government statement.
Argentina, Brazil and Mexico are the only Latin American countries with nuclear energy plants, and Argentina has embarked on an ambitious plan to build new plants to ease reliance on dwindling fossil fuels.
