- Argentina - Portal público de noticias de la República Argentina.
Balseiro Institute, the Atomic Center of Bariloche and APRE form, in our Patagonia, a triangle of scientific and technological prestige at an international level and a magnet that attract the investigator’s attention.
Bariloche went beyond its landscapes: its scientific investigation centers also have a place in the world. The Atomic Center of Bariloche, Balseiro Institute and the Company of Applied Researches (APRE) are widely known. The origin of this prestige is in Balseiro Institute where the Scientifics are trained. And when somebody ask for an master of investigator, all the eulogies of the colleagues are for Tomás Buch, an emblem of CAI, one of the three most important Scientifics of South America and member of the fist teacher stuff of Instituto Balseiro.
How have you done for keeping the professionals and Scientifics in a country where they are commonly kicked out?
Nowadays, salaries are very attractive and besides, there is interest in participating in relevant projects. APRE is an agile company. Throughout the last years, we have gotten reliability technological perfection. There is a kind of mystic and moreover, Bariloche is an attractive place for any professional of the world.
What does the recognition of the Company in the world means?
I am going to answer in football terms: We play in first division and it is a pride.
How did you start playing in first division from here?
I think that Argentina always has had a good science and, in some moments, very good science. Balseiro was implemented based on a concrete idea: To achieve the excellence in physics and finally we won. However, the technology was out. That was the challenge, among others. I want to stand out the point of view of Comado Varotto who supported this project.
APRE – whose installments are located inside the National Park Nahuel Huapi – is a reserve of grey material. It has been developed investigation reactors and management of radioisotopes, satellite for terrestrial observation, industrial plants, radar systems and centers of radiation treatment, among others. It is bringing between 36 and 70 million dollars a year and it is starting a series of projects of high technology. For every case, it develops a plant of radioisotopes for Egypt and 18 radiotherapy centers for Venezuela.
In April, in Australia, the experts of APRE started the reactor of investigation OPAL (Open Pool Australian Light Walter). It is used for the radiopharmaceutical provides of high quality for the nuclear medicine and the production of radioisotopes of industrial use and neutron beam for scientific and military investigations. The fixed cost was 200 million dollars. It was the most important export for Argentina in this kind of technology; it was the end of a process that began in 1998. All the engineering of the project was developed in Río Negro and it meant an international positioning for the country.
There is a new challenge now: We are working in the construction of the investigation satellite SAC-D that started with an agreement between the American NASA and the Argentine CONAE. It will mean a demand of more than 230 million dollars. 180 millions of this 230 will be financed by United States and the rest will be in charge of the country. It is a satellite with a radiometer that will allow it to measure the superficial radiation of the oceans, apart from its temperature and salinity. This equipment can penetrate approximately one meter in the earth's crust that will provide important information about the grounds. It will weight thousand kilos, four meters high and it will be launched at Vandenberg base, California, with Delta II rocket.
