Based on the present conditions, including the attitudes toward nuclear power in Latin America, it is estimated that there will be between 20 and 30 reactors operating in Latin America by the year 2000 and another 30 or 40 under construction. Argentina is the first country in Latin America which has used nuclear power. This plant will start operation within two years. Argentina has plans to build four additional plants, all of the natural uranium and heavy-water type. There is a pilot plant for fabricating the fuel element.
Future plans call for the production of zirconium tubes for cladding the fuel.
Argentinians now have an experimental plant producing three tons of heavy water per year. There is a technology transfer programme between Argentina and Peru, by which Argentina supplies two small reactors to the Peruvian Institute of Nuclear Energy. One of those reactors, for training, is completed and the other one, for isotope production, is being constructed. Venezuela has stated its intention to have a nuclear plant on line by the early 1990s. However the government attitude toward nuclear energy does not appear enthusiastic.