The President of Brazil’s National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN – Comissào National de Energia Nuclear), Francisco Rondinelli Junior, and the CEO of Argentina’s state-owned private technology company INVAP (INVestigación APlicada – applied research), Dario Sergio Giussi, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the Brazilian Multipurpose Reactor (RMB – Reator Multipropósito Brasileiro).
The MOU aims to establish the terms, conditions and premises that will guide negotiations between CNEN and INVAP, for the conclusion of the EPC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction) Contract for the technological complex that will house the RMB in Ipero (Sorocaba, Sao Paulo), with all its laboratory facilities, operational infrastructure and logistics support.
The RMB will be a 30 MWt open-pool research reactor, similar to Argentina’s RA-10 multipurpose reactor currently under construction with operation scheduled in the next year or two. INVAP signed the agreement in 2013 to build the two research reactors – one in each country – with the reference design to be the Open Pool Australian Light-water (Opal) research reactor that INVAP supplied to the Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation.
The RMB is a priority project for the technological development of the nuclear sector in Brazil. It is included in the Federal Government’s Growth Acceleration Programme (PAC – Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento) under the coordination of the Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation and with the contribution of resources from the National Fund for Scientific & Technological Development (FNDCT – Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico).
The work will start in 2026 and the RMB will be delivered in 2030, with the start of operation scheduled for 2031. In May, INVAP signed a contract with Brazil’s PATRIA Foundation (FP – Fundação PATRIA) and CNEN to carry out the conceptual and basic design of the Radioisotope Production Facility complementing the RMB project.
