Guidance.

In my last post I mentioned Argentina, its recent expansion of nuclear capacity and the immediate emissions abatement it now achieves. Well, there’s more. Argentina also reached an agreement this year with a Chinese supplier for its next reactor. The reactor is the EC6. The supplier is China National Nuclear Corporation.

Yes, that CNNC.

CNNC completed the pair of CANDU EC6s in Qinshan in 5 years. They cost US$2.88 billion. Argentina may not expect quite such aggressive timeframe or cost, but can we please have a break from the stale too-long-too-expensive objection? These guys obviously know what they’re doing, and so does Argentina. We sourced OPAL from Argentina. We could get in on this action. It may be that SMRs are more suited to Australian geography and population densities, and Argentina has streaked ahead there with their CAREM project.

The CANDU EC6 is, of course, the reference reactor from Zero Carbon Options. In a South Australian context, it could run on locally fabricated uranium fuel, made from ore extracted by in situ recovery. Replacing at least 700 MW of what is currently carbon-intensive, lignite- and gas-fired capacity.

A recent sunny, breezy day thanks to empowerme.org. Embellishment is mine. Nuclear contribution and CIPK roughly estimated from Ontario data.

Or maybe we could strengthen ties with South Australia’s sister state in China, Shandong Province – with plans for an eventual six AP1000 units up at Haiyang. They know what they’re doing, too. Do we?

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