Sixty environmental organizations in Argentina are urging President Eduardo Duhalde not to authorize a cooperation agreement with Australia that they say would turn Argentina into a radioactive waste-processing center. The agreement was signed in 2000 by the Institute of Applied Research (INVAP), of the southern Argentine province of Río Negro, and by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization.

INVAP would provide a 180-million-dollar reactor, and has also offered a location – perhaps Ezeiza, in Buenos Aires province – for “processing and treating” the nuclear waste generated by the reactor.