The Embalse Nuclear Power Station is one of the two operational nuclear power plant

Nuclear power plant

A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...

s in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. It is located on the southern shore of a reservoir on the Río Tercero, near the city of Embalse

Embalse, Córdoba

Embalse is a town in the center-west of the province of Córdoba, Argentina, located within the Calamuchita Valley, 119 km south-southwest from Córdoba City...

, Córdoba

Córdoba Province (Argentina)

Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...

, 110 km south-southwest of Córdoba City

Córdoba, Argentina

Córdoba is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina after the federal capital Buenos Aires, with...

.

The plant is a CANDU

CANDU reactor

The CANDU reactor is a Canadian-invented, pressurized heavy water reactor. The acronym refers to its deuterium-oxide moderator and its use of uranium fuel...

 Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR). It employs natural uranium

Natural uranium

Natural uranium refers to refined uranium with the same isotopic ratio as found in nature. It contains 0.7 % uranium-235, 99.3 % uranium-238, and a trace of uranium-234 by weight. In terms of the amount of radioactivity, approximately 2.2 % comes from uranium-235, 48.6 % uranium-238, and 49.2 %...

 (that is, with 0.72% of ²³⁵U), and uses heavy water

Heavy water

Heavy water is water highly enriched in the hydrogen isotope deuterium; e.g., heavy water used in CANDU reactors is 99.75% enriched by hydrogen atom-fraction...

 for cooling and neutron moderation. It has a thermal power of 2,109 MW

Watt

The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...

, and generates 648 MW of electricity, with a net output of about 600 MW, supplying nearly 4.5% of the production of the Argentine Interconnection System (2005).

Additionally, Embalse produces the cobalt-60

Cobalt-60

Cobalt-60, , is a synthetic radioactive isotope of cobalt. Due to its half-life of 5.27 years, is not found in nature. It is produced artificially by neutron activation of . decays by beta decay to the stable isotope nickel-60...

 radioisotope, which is employed in medicine (cancer therapy) and industrial applications. Argentina is one of the largest producers and exporters of this isotope in the world, along with Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

.

Embalse was started in 1974 and began operation in 1983 (first criticality March 13 1983, declared commercial Jan 20 1984). It was built by an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

-Canadian consortium formed by AECL

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited or AECL is a Canadian federal Crown corporation and Canada's largest nuclear science and technology laboratory...

 and Italimpianti.

See also

• National Atomic Energy Commission
  National Atomic Energy Commission
  The National Atomic Energy Commission is the Argentine government agency in charge of nuclear energy research and development.The agency was created on May 31, 1950 with the mission of developing and controlling nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in the country.CNEA's facilities include the...
  
  
• Atucha I Nuclear Power Plant
  Atucha I nuclear power plant
  Atucha I is one of two operational nuclear power plants of Argentina. It is located in the town of Lima, Zárate, Buenos Aires, about from Buenos Aires, on the right-hand shore of the Paraná de las Palmas River....
  
  
• Atucha II Nuclear Power Plant
  Atucha II nuclear power plant
  Atucha II is a nuclear power plant in Argentina, located in Lima, Buenos Aires, on a site next to Atucha I. Its construction started in June 1981 under a contract with Siemens, but it has not been finished . Like Atucha I, it is a Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor , but was planned to have a much...