Over the next seven years, the government also expects to train more than 400 people in the nuclear area.
The Directorate General for Energy, Hydrocarbons and Mines (DGEHM) announced Thursday that the government’s bet over the next seven years is to have its first nuclear reactor.
During a forum organized by the Latin American Energy Organization (Olade), the director of the DGEHM, Daniel Álvarez, said that the bet also includes the training of dozens of Salvadoran specialists in the field of nuclear energy.
We want by 2030 to have the first research reactor, we want to train 400 specialists in a seven-year period. Daniel Álvarez, director of DGEHM
The journey to boost nuclear power is not so long for El Salvador. In March 2023, the Directorate signed a cooperation agreement with the Thorium Energy Alliance to explore nuclear power generation with thorium fuel.
The state’s interest in betting on this type of resources was strengthened this year. Last March, Álvarez and Vice-Chancellor Adriana Mira presented the legal instruments, to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), for the generation of nuclear power.
The steps
Four months later the Legislative Assemblyapprovedthe Law on the Establishment of the Agency for the Implementation of the Nuclear Power Program in El Salvador, which functions as a unit of the government and which is led by Álvarez in his position as ad-honorem director.
In its most recent action, the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) of Argentina and El Salvador signed acooperation agreementso that Argentina, one of the few with nuclear reactors in Latin America, supports El Salvador in its first steps.
Álvarez said on October 10 that they are taking advantage of signing all international agreements and conventions to promote the peaceful use of this resource in El Salvador.
The official indicated that the government observes opportunities within this type of energy because, during the first five years, they faced various problems related to supplies and droughts that boosted the use of fuels to supply demand, generating an increase in price.
The director of the DGEHM acknowledged that the cost of energy in El Salvador is currently “very expensive,” and that the bet is that this becomes more affordable.
“The last five years have shown us that we have to transition and we have to run, we cannot predict the climate,” said the spokesman for the Directorate.
Reactors
The Director General of the IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said during a presentation that there are 420 reactors in operation in the world located in 31 countries. Of this portion, seven are located in the region.
In detail, three are in Argentina, two in Brazil and two in Mexico. Grossi acknowledged that fleet growth will be limited in the region, with Argentina and Brazil as their main destinations.
The IAEA estimates that 25 per cent of the world’s clean energy is nuclear. In countries such as the United States 20 per cent of the energies produced correspond to this type of resources.
In June, the Salvadoran government said nuclear power could cover a26 % of generationin El Salvador by 2050.
The last report of the Transaction Unit (UT) for last August reveals that hydropower was the main energy resource during that month, covering more than half of the 643,8 gigawatt hour (GW/h) of the total injected energy.
Among the main participants in the energy market are also geothermal energies and natural gas.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo