Argentina’s nuclear sector has been managed and operated by the Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica (CNEA), created in 1950. Since then, CNEA has advised the Argentine government on matters related to the nuclear energy development field, particularly research and development (R&D) in the nuclear fuel cycle and the construction of several research reactors. The Argentine government directly supports the country’s nuclear energy program in the design of nuclear policies, carrying out R&D, and regulating the peaceful uses of nuclear energy through CNEA and the AutoridadRegulatoria Nuclear (ARN). Argentina’s nuclear power plants are operated by the Nucleoelectrica Argentina S.A. (NA-SA).

Argentina currently operates threepressurized heavy-water reactor nuclear reactors (PHWR) – ATUCHA-1with a net capacity of 340 MW(e), ATUCHA-2 with a net capacity of 693 MW(e), and EMBALSE with a net capacity of 608 MW(e). Its third nuclear reactor, CAREM25, is a pressurized water reactor under construction with a projected net capacity of 25 MW(e).4 Argentina also plans to build its fourth reactor, Unit IV (ATUCHA-3), and has signed a cooperation agreement with the Chinese government over the construction of a fifth, pressurized water reactor (PWR).

In 1991, Argentina joined Brazil in establishing the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC), leading to the Quadripartite Agreement between the two countries, ABACC, and the IAEA. This cooperation resulted in the countries placing their nuclear programs under full-scope safeguards. Argentina has yet to sign the IAEA Additional Protocol. 

As of 2023, Argentina has not yet signed or ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).