physics

National Atomic Energy Commission

National Atomic Energy Commission is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand National Atomic Energy Commission rather than just read about it. In short: The National Atomic Energy Commission (Spanish: Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica, CNEA) is the Argentine government agency in charge of nuclear energy research and development. The agency was created on 31 May 1950, with the mission of developing and controlling nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in the country.

Key takeaways

National Atomic Energy Commission belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Connect National Atomic Energy Commission to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of National Atomic Energy Commission from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The National Atomic Energy Commission (Spanish: Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica, CNEA) is the Argentine government agency in charge of nuclear energy research and development. The agency was created on 31 May 1950, with the mission of developing and controlling nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in the country. CNEA's facilities include the Bariloche Atomic Centre (in San Carlos de Bariloche), Constituyentes Atomic Centre (in Buenos Aires), and Ezeiza Atomic Centre (in Ezeiza, Buenos Aires Province). CNEA operates research reactors at each of these sites.

History Officially established by President Juan Perón's Decree No 10.936, CNEA filled the need for a state organ to oversee the funding of the Huemul Project in Bariloche. Before CNEA came into being, the project was funded by the Dirección de Migraciones. In practice CNEA had only four members (Juan Domingo Perón, González, Mendé and Ronald Richter). In 1951, decree 9697 created another agency, the Dirección Nacional de la Energía Atómica (DNEA), also under González, to do research on atomic energy in Buenos Aires (González left CNEA in April 1952 and was replaced by Iraolagoitía) until 1955. After being assessed by two review panels in 1952, the Huemul Project was closed and Richter was no longer a CNEA member. Research in physics and technology continued in Bariloche, but no longer along Richter's original line. Admiral Oscar Armando Quihillalt was the first director of the National Atomic Energy Commission, and was also an important participant in the International Atomic Energy Agency. In 1955, José Antonio Balseiro, a research scientist and member of the first review panel on the Huemul Project, took over the recently created Instituto de Física de Bariloche, now Instituto Balseiro, which used Richter's facilities in the mainland, but abandoned the buildings in Huemul Island. In 1956 Argentina's uranium resources were nationalized with the Commission controlling prospecting, production, and marketing. A yellowcake (uranium oxide) production capability was created that could support future plans for reactors. However, in accord with three presidential decrees of 1960, 1962 and 1963, Argentina supplied its initial production of about 90 tons of unsafeguarded yellowcake to Israel to fuel its Dimona reactor, creating the fissile material for Israel's first nuclear weapons. The facilities in Buenos Aires were expanded after the closure of the Huemul Project, and by the 1960s became larger in terms of size and expenditure than those in Bariloche. It was the Constituyentes research centre that the first Latin American research reactor was built (1957), the RA-1 Enrico Fermi. The 335-MWe Atucha I designed by Germany's (Siemens) was completed in 1974. In 1984 the 600-MWe Embalse designed by Canadian CANDU started its commercial operation. In 1995 CNEA's functions where divided into newly created separate organizations such as the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (Autoridad Regulatoria Nuclear - ARN), which supervises nuclear safety in the country, and the Nucleoeléctrica Argentina - NASA, the company that operates the two completed nuclear power reactors. Today, CNEA mainly focuses on research and development of nuclear and related technologies. In 2001 the original 1956 Directory structure of a President and five members designated by the National Executive authority was reduced, eliminating four positions of the Directory by Decrees 1065–01 and 1066–01. On 2010 CNEA reopened the Enriched uranium plant at Pilcaniyeu inaugurated on 1983 but closed in the 1990s In 2014 692-MWe Atucha II, also a Siemens design, started operating besides Atucha I. Since then Argentina operates three pressurized heavy-water reactors (PHWR), that use heavy water as moderator and coolant and unenriched natural uranium as fuel, for the generation of electricity. Also in 2014, CNEA begun construction of the world's first small modular reactor (SMR), the CAREM-25 a small (25 MWe) pressurized water reactor (PWR) that unlike all previous power reactors in the country has been totally designed and developed domestically. It will use low-enrichment uranium as fuel and light water as coolant and moderator, a first for the country that traditionally used PHWRs designs. In December 2015 a new uranium enrichment plant to manufacture fuel for Argentina's nuclear plants, located in Pilcaniyeu, was inaugurated. The plant will use both gaseous diffusion and more modern laser techniques.

Research, development, production and educational activities

Although CNEA HQ is located in Buenos Aires city most of CNEA's activities are concentrated at three other sites

Centro Atómico Constituyentes, San Martín, Buenos Aires province Its premises contain the first nuclear reactor in Latin America RA-1 that went critical on 17 January 1958. Its researchers not only pioneered the construction of research reactors in Argentina, but also formed its leading groups in metallurgy, physics and chemistry. The Tandar accelerator is a large tandem Van de Graaff type facility dedicated to nuclear physics, condensed matter physics and medical research. It houses facilities for the development and building of research nuclear reactors fuels. Its academic unit, the Instituto Sábato, focused in Materials Science grants Licenciado, MSc and PhD degrees in association with the Universidad de San Martín.

Centro Atómico Bariloche, Bariloche, Rio Negro province Its academic unit the Instituto Balseiro, an association with the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo trained hundred of physicists and nuclear engineers since its creation as Instituto de Física de Bariloche in 1955. Its researchers published hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific papers and provided important contributions to applied and basic science. Its RA-6 reactor was built to train Balseiro's nuclear engineering students as well to conduct basic and applied research.

Centro Atómico Ezeiza, Ezeiza, Buenos Aires province

Its RA-3 research/production reactor produces all nuclear isotopes for medicine used in Argentina and supplies neighbouring countries as well. Other research facilities include . Its academic unit Instituto Beninson in association with the Universidad de San Martín is focused on the applications of nuclear technologies, has an engineering degree on the subject, has many post-graduate degrees as well as granting PhDs on connected areas. There are other smaller sites around the country concerned with particular activities each

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with National Atomic Energy Commission

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what National Atomic Energy Commission claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to National Atomic Energy Commission before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about National Atomic Energy Commission ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of National Atomic Energy Commission

In research: National Atomic Energy Commission appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses National Atomic Energy Commission in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: National Atomic Energy Commission is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1950 establishments in Argentina, Government agencies established in 1950, Government agencies of Argentina, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for National Atomic Energy Commission outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study National Atomic Energy Commission in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what National Atomic Energy Commission means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is National Atomic Energy Commission in simple terms?

Why does National Atomic Energy Commission matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study National Atomic Energy Commission?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on National Atomic Energy Commission.