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| Fig. 1: Peru is highlighted in green. (Source: (Wikimedia Commons) |
The Republic of Peru is located in South America (Fig. 1). It is a country that has large reserves of natural gas, crude oil, uranium and offers many options for hydroelectric powers. Currently half of its electricity comes from hydroelectric and thermal plants that use natural gas. Even though Peru has large reserves of crude oil, it relies heavily on oil import. Three quarters of the oil used in Peru is imported. Peru started to export natural gas in 2010. [1]
The electric power consumption (kWh per capita) has been growing steadily since 1990s. [1] 81% of this electric consumption came from hydroelectric sources in 2000. Since 2006 the percentage of electricity coming from hydroelectric sources has steadily decreased and it was 53% in 2013. [1] The other half of electricity production came mostly from thermal energy from natural gas. Peru does not have nuclear power plants and there is no intention of embarking in a nuclear power program for now. [2]
Currently, Peru has nuclear and radiation facilities but it does not own nuclear power plants. [3,4] Even though exploring the idea of owning a nuclear power plant has been considered in Congress in the past, after the Fukushima disaster this has been desisted. There is no plan for embarking the country in a nuclear power program and the country plans to cover the demand with its large reserve of natural gas and hydroelectric power. There are two nuclear reactors in Peru operated by the Peruvian Institute for Nuclear Energy (IPEN). These are the RP-10 research reactor and the RP-0 reactor. The RP-0 is a tank type reactor that operates with MTR (Materials Test Reactor) fuel elements having 20% of Uranium-235. It is located in the Headquarter of IPEN in Lima within a densely populated area. It is used for research purposes. The other reactor RP-10 is located in a low-density population area in the RACSO Nuclear Center. The RP-10 is a pool type (piscina) research-production nuclear reactor developed by the CNEA (National Commission of Atomic Energy) Argentine to IPEN. [4] It operates with MTR (Materials Test Reactor) fuel elements containing Uranium-235 enriched at 20%. [2] The working core is arranged with 24 normal fuels and 5 control and safety bars. The core is surrounded by graphite and beryllium reflectors. [2] The safety system is provided through 3 safety bars which fall into the core to shut down if deviations from normal setup conditions happen. [2] The nuclear activities carried out with the RP-10 reactor are those related to the use of ionizing radiation sources in medicine, industry, soil degradation studies, radioisotopes production and training. [3]
Peru does not plan to built a nuclear power plant in the near future. Even though the demand of electricity has risen in the last 30 years, this demand has been covered by thermal plants using the large reserves of natural gas. In terms of future planning, the government plans to invest in decentralized hydroelectrics across the country and to continue expanding the natural gas exploitation. [5] For this reason, the existing nuclear facilities are targeted exclusively to research purposes.
© Claudia Parisuana-Barranca. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] "Balance Nacional de Energía 2016," Ministerio de Energía y Minas, República del Perú, 2016.
[2] "National Report from Peru: Seventh Report Prepared in the Framework of Convention on Nuclear Safety," Institute Peruano de Energía Nuclear (IPEN), August 2016.
[3] Country Programme Framework 2018-2023," International Atomic Energy Agency and Government of the Republic of Peru, September 2018.
[4] J. Roca, "Availability Analysis for RP-10 Nuclear Reactor Trip Module," Microelectron. Reliab. 26, 611 (1986).
[5] "La industria de la Electricidad en el Perú", Organismo Supervisor de la Inversión en Energía y Minería, Osinergmin, 2016, pp. 296-298.
