The pool has been installed at Argentina’s RA-10 multipurpose research reactor under construction at the Ezeiza Atomic Centre in the province of Buenos Aires, the Energy Ministry announced on 27 August. The pool - 14 metres high and 4.5 metres wide - was designed by Argentinian plant equipment supplier INVAP and the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), and was built by metallurgical company SECIN. The RA10 reactor will expand Argentina’s technological development and will also make Argentina self-sufficient in the supply of radioisotopes for medical use.

The pool is one of the main components of the reactor housing the fuel elements and control rods. The manager of the RA-10 Project, Herman Blaumann, explained that "after the assembly of the main pool, the assembly of the decay tank and the service pool will be carried out, which are the three largest components of the reactor. The reactor building will then be completed. "Work on the RA-10 began in 2016, and its start-up is planned for the second half of 2020.

"The design of the RA-10 reactor began in 2010 in order to ensure that there will be radioisotopes for the local market, to export to the international market and to expand our capacity for technological development, research in basic sciences and applications based on the use of advanced neutron techniques. " , explained Alberto Lamagna, vice president of the CNEA.

"With the RA-10 our country will lead the development of this type of reactor worldwide,” he added. It is based on the OPAL radioisotope production reactor that INVAP supplied to Australia in 2007. Earlier this year INVAP also won the tender to build the new Petten reactor for the Netherlands.