Science and Education, December 05, 2008
INVAP, tailored cutting-edge technology
Hand in hand with this State Society, Argentina exports nuclear reactors, satellites and medical equipment to the rest of the world. It represents the latest technology completely designed and developed in our country.
SAC-D, a satellite with small physical size and mass that the previous one.
INVAP was created in 1976, according to a settlement between the National Atomic Energy Committee from Argentina and the government of Río Negro Province. At present, its offices and plants extend for more than 10,000m2. Its headquarters is located in one of the major touristy resorts in Argentina: San Carlos de Bariloche city, within Nahuel Huapi National Park, in Río Negro Province.
Apart from its headquarters, this State Society holds offices in Buenos Aires, Australia and Egypt and two subsidiary companies in the USA and Brazil respectively.
Its staff of more than 700 people, mainly trained in Argentina, are highly qualified for the development of technological systems and dealing with complex projects.
INVAP´s comprehensive work reaches several areas: Nuclear Energy, Space, Industry, Medical and Scientific Equipment, Government and Defence. All this calls for the design, the start and maintenance of nuclear reactors, electric nucleus centrals, satellites for scientific applications (SAC), space centres technology, wind energy plants, engineering of chemical process, robotics, medical equipment, wide range radars and flying simulation.
Latest projects
It will cover positions of this kind of orbit in the frequency bands the International Telecommunications Committee (UIT) assigned to our country. It will be put into orbit by the end of 2011, providing services in telephone, data, Internet and TV for users all over the country.
INVAP was chosen to develop a satellite which could measure the salinity worldwide. It is the only Argentine company qualified by NASA to carry out space projects; the American agency will supply this time the instrument “Aquarius”, of U$S180 million. This fact reveals how much they trust our local industry.
Nuclear reactors
Australia
OPAL is a multipurpose facility. Thanks to its capacities, it is the strongest and most complex research reactor of the world within its category
Egypt
The multipurpose reactor built in Egypt produces radioisotopes and it can be applied in research activities in the field of physics, science of materials, investigations and development of nuclear fuels, among other capacities
Algeria
In 1985, INVAP signed an agreement for the construction 1 MW thermal power nuclear reactor in Algiers. This reactor, which was inaugurated in April 1989, took only 18 months to assemble was given the name NUR ("luminosity" in Arabic)
Peru
The first reactor of the Peruvian of Nuclear Energy was designed and built by the National Commission of Atomic Energy (CNEA) of Argentina before the time expected. INVAP supposed its validation as exporter because it was responsible for the computer, electronic and mechanical systems of control of the Peruvian reactor
Argentina
RA-6 was inaugurated in 1982; it was the first research reactor built by INVAP. This facility is located in San Carlos de Bariloche on the premises of the Centro Atómico Bariloche belonging to the Argentine Nuclear Authority, the CNEA
A step forward
The Argentine Air Force released documentation homologating the Argentine Secondary Monopulse Radar (INKAN), a state-of-the-art device that makes use of major technical advances. In the coming months the first three –of a total of eleven– will be installed. The homologation is universally valid: the devices can be used anywhere in the world
Beautiful minds
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
Star Trek
The Pierre Auger international observatory, located in Malargüe – Province of Mendoza -, discovered a high energy source of cosmic rays
Argentina by Specialists Blog
Héctor Otheguy, INVAP chief manager, explains, in four issues, the history and expansion of this Argentine company devoted to design and develop cutting edge, complex technological systems.
Argentina´s Productive and Scientific Development
Biofuel production is experiencing a steady growth due to the fact that companies have adopted an exporting role, which holds out the prospect of a promising future for Argentina considering the world’s increasing demand for renewable energy.
At present, the scientific tradition in the country gives way to the possibility of developing important research in nanotechnology and also to many local companies the use of this technique to manufacture innovative products.
Is one of the central points of the strategy of scientific development, and also of the productive development in Argentina. Companies with technological foundations generate investigation and products, known all around the world.
