RA-10

The RA-10 is the 30 MW thermal open-pool reactor that the National Atomic Energy Commission is building at the Ezeiza Atomic Center to replace the RA-3, a 10 MW unit in service since 1967. INVAP is the main contractor. The project was approved in 2010, the Nuclear Regulatory Authority granted the construction license in 2014 and the civil works were completed in early 2024. In February 2024 the reflector tank traveled from Bariloche to Ezeiza, a Zircaloy-4 vessel 2 meters in diameter that holds over 2,000 liters of heavy water; in June 2026, 27 drums with six tonnes of heavy water arrived to fill it, the step before final testing and the startup planned for 2026.

It shares its concept with OPAL: a compact core of low-enriched uranium plate assemblies cooled by light water and surrounded by a heavy-water reflector. Its goals are to supply every radioisotope Argentine medicine uses and capture up to 20% of the world molybdenum-99 market, produce lutetium-177 for therapy, dope up to 80 tonnes of silicon a year, test and qualify fuels and materials for experimental and power reactors, and feed neutron beams to the Argentine Neutron Beam Laboratory. It is also the reference design for the Brazilian Multipurpose Reactor.