ARGENTINA

-- In a bid to salvage its run-down nuclear industry, the government is planning to put up its nuclear plants for sale. A debate is raging on in the country about a bill which seeks to privatise two working power stations and one unfinished plant -- Atucha ii -- on which the country has spent billions of dollars. But now the coffers have dried up. The sale would provide an estimated us $600-700 million required to complete the construction of Atucha ii . Work on the 750 mw plant has been going on since 1981 and it has cost the nation more than us $2 billion.

According to Augustin Blanco, former president of Nucleoelectrica Argentina, -- which would run the plants in the lead-up to privatisation -- the privatisation is not aimed at earning a lot of money but at finishing Atucha ii. The bill is being strongly opposed by environmentalists. The bill also permits private operators to create a dump for high-level nuclear wastes. There have been angry protests by people on this issue. Said one opposition member, "We do not want Argentina turned into the world's nuclear rubbish heap."