By Eliana Raszewski BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentine President Javier Milei will sign a decree aimed at partially privatizing the company responsible for the country’s three operating nuclear power plants, his spokesperson said on Tuesday, as the libertarian leader moves forward with pledges to trim the size of the state. The Milei administration intends to sell […]
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Argentina’s Milei to partially privatize nuclear power plants operator
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By Eliana Raszewski
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentine President Javier Milei will sign a decree aimed at partially privatizing the company responsible for the country’s three operating nuclear power plants, his spokesperson said on Tuesday, as the libertarian leader moves forward with pledges to trim the size of the state.
The Milei administration intends to sell 44% of the shares of Nucleoelectrica Argentina (NA-SA), which operates the Atucha I, Atucha II and Embalse power plants, through an international public tender, spokesperson Manuel Adorni told a press conference.
The state would retain a 51% stake in the firm, while also setting up a joint ownership program for up to 5% of the share capital, he added.
“The idea is to promote private investment to build Argentina’s first modular reactor and boost uranium mining,” Adorni said, reiterating that all state-run companies in the South American country are subject to potential privatization.
Milei took office in December 2023 promising to cut spending in order to balance public accounts and tame a then triple-digit annual inflation rate.
The government said in a separate statement about the latest move that private investment was key to expanding access to capital, diversifying risks and ensuring the continuity of the NA-SA’s operations in an “efficient and competitive manner.”
A group representing workers of Argentina’s National Commission for Atomic Energy and Nuclear Activity criticized the decision, saying that the state should have a central role overseeing the development and safety of nuclear energy, and that the partial privatization would result in higher power prices.
“Privatizing NA-SA won’t improve people’s lives, but rather incentivize increasing fares to match the market rate, with citizens paying the difference to bump up the profitability of a private company,” it said in a statement.
(Reporting by Eliana Raszewski; Editing by Gabriel Araujo and Marguerita Choy)