Buenos Aires, June 27 (Mercopress-RHC) -- Argentina said that in five weeks it will restart operations at an enriched uranium plant as part of a peaceful pursuit of nuclear energy.

“In five weeks, the Pilcaniyeu plant will resume production of enriched uranium,” the Argentine Planning Minister, Julio de Vido, said at a Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting in Buenos Aires.

The reopening of the Pilcaniyeu Technological Complex, located some 1,600 kilometers southwest of Buenos Aires and managed by the National Atomic Energy Commission, has required an investment outlay of US$27 million.

Argentina produced uranium on an experimental scale at Pilcaniyeu in the 1980s, when the country developed an enrichment method, but later halted production at the plant.

With the reopening of the plant, Argentina will be producing that nuclear fuel component on an industrial scale for the first time.

De Vido said that Argentina also will join a group of 10 other countries recognized by the International Atomic Energy Agency as producers of enriched uranium.