Latin America no longer discusses whether electricity demand will grow. The question is what it will use to cover it when the sun doesn't shine, the wind dies down, and the dams fall short. In 2025, final electricity consumption in the region rose by 3.7% compared to the previous year. In a scenario of accelerated decarbonization, OLACDE projects that this consumption will nearly triple by 2050 (+156%). The International Energy Agency, in its Latin America Energy Outlook, estimates increases in electricity demand of nearly 90% in the announced policies scenario and 180% in the decarbonization promises scenario, by 2050.
In the face of that curve, nuclear remains almost residual. By the end of 2025, Latin America and the Caribbean had about 5.1 GW of nuclear capacity in operation, concentrated in three countries. Argentina operates three reactors (1,631 MWe) that contribute about 7% of its electricity; Brazil, two (1,884 MWe) with around 2%; Mexico, the two from Laguna Verde (1,552 MWe) with about 4%. That is not a technical ceiling. It is a postponed decision.
Why “more renewables” alone is not enough
The region already has one of the cleanest electricity matrices in the world: hydroelectric, wind, and solar account for a good part of the new generation. In 2025, wind and solar represented 61% of the added capacity. The problem is not variable renewable energy. It is firm: the one that is available at 3 a.m., during a three-year drought, or when a cluster of data centers or a mine needs 24/7.
Brazil has experienced water crises: nuclear, although small in the matrix, serves as an anchor when water is lacking. Mexico has Laguna Verde as one of the few high-availability baseload sources (capacity factor above 90% in recent data). Natural gas remains the default backup —and by 2025 its regional installed capacity even grew— but that ties prices, emissions, and geopolitics to a fossil fuel.
Nuclear does not compete with the sun and wind: it makes them usable at an industrial scale. Without dispatchable low-emission power, the transition translates into more gas, more curtailment, or more risk of blackout.
The right size: SMR, not just megaprojects
Large reactors are still on the table —Angra 3 in Brazil is the most visible case, with over six decades of ups and downs and a state decision still open— but the natural fit for much of LATAM is not a single GWe. They are blocks of tens or a few hundred megawatts, manufacturable in series, compatible with weak grids, industrial sites, and uses of heat in addition to electricity.
That is what SMRs are. The IAEA estimates that, in Latin America and the Caribbean, SMRs could represent about 40% of the new nuclear capacity in both its low and high cases. In numbers: regional capacity could increase from 5.1 GW in 2025 to between 9 and 20 GW in 2050, depending on the scenario. It is not an Asian-style boom. It is enough to change the energy conversation of several countries… if someone makes the decision.
Argentina is the only country in the region with its own SMR prototype under construction: the CAREM-25 (25 MWe net), of national design. The civil works have advanced substantially, but the project has suffered budget paralysis, engineering review, and a political shift towards other designs and partners. In parallel, there has been talk of four ACR-300 (300 MWe each) in Atucha, with an initial operational target towards 2030; the schedule, like almost everything nuclear in the region, is still more of a statement than a fixed timeline.
Brazil combines the legacy of Angra with new signals: interest in SMR and floating plants with Rosatom, a 3-5 MWe microreactor program, and studies to install an SMR in a coal thermal complex (Jorge Lacerda), with the IAEA and ABDAN. Mexico extended the life of Laguna Verde towards the 2050s, but the most recent electrical expansion plan does not incorporate new nuclear. In the long term, the sector's own literature points to small reactors for electricity and agricultural desalination. The asset exists. The new build policy does not.
Three uses that do not fit in a solar panel
Mining is the most obvious. Copper, lithium, and other critical minerals are, almost by definition, far from the grid and close to water that is no longer abundant. The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency dedicated an entire case study to SMR for mining: decarbonizing off-grid operations that today rely on diesel. In northern Chile, desalination is already strategic infrastructure: hundreds of kilometers of works bring seawater to deposits over 3,000 meters high. Previous studies with IAEA codes (DEEP) already compared SMR + reverse osmosis against fossil solutions for mines like Escondida. The bottleneck is not imagining the use case. It is licensing, financing, and operating the first module.
The second use is nuclear-derived hydrogen —the so-called pink hydrogen— and its derivatives (ammonia, fertilizers, synthetic fuels). Unlike “green” hydrogen tied to intermittency, a reactor provides steady heat and electricity for electrolysis or thermochemical cycles. A recent study for Colombia with high-temperature reactors estimates costs of 1.48 to 4.73 USD/kg, within the competitiveness range of low-emission hydrogen. For Atacama mining, platforms, or industrial corridors, that is not a slide from conferences: it is the difference between decarbonizing or continuing to burn diesel and gas.
The third is water and isolated networks. A NuScale-type SMR module has been modeled to produce around 150 million gallons of desalinated water daily, in addition to electricity. Amazon, Patagonia, islands, and systems that currently depend on liquid fuels do not need an EPR. They need a compact block, with passive safety and cogeneration (electricity + heat).
What is missing is not a paper. It is a market
There is technology. There is also operational experience: half a century in Atucha, Embalse, Angra, and Laguna Verde. What LATAM lacks is a regional project market, supply chain, comparable regulation, and structured financing for the first commercial SMR.
That is not resolved only in academic congresses —essential for the scientific base— nor in national press conferences. It is resolved when utilities, miners, SMR developers, regulators, development banks, and governments sit in the same room to talk about site, license, PPA, hydrogen, and water, not general principles.
That’s why the calendar matters. While Asia and North America turn SMR into orders, Latin America remains in “potential.” Every year of waiting means more gas, more hydrological exposure, and more industrial demand that will be resolved with whatever is at hand.
The Nuclear Summit & Expo LATAM (March 1 and 2, 2028, Veracruz) is designed exactly for that gap: a B2B meeting point for the region, focusing on technological innovation —starting with SMR and new industrial uses—, networking among industry, academia, and authorities, and the role of nuclear in energy security and decarbonization. Veracruz is not a backdrop: it is the state of Laguna Verde, the only nuclear power plant in Mexico and one of the few in the region.
LATAM does not need to be told again that nuclear is low carbon. It needs the first well-chosen pilot, the first heat or hydrogen contract, and a regional conversation that stops treating SMR as science fiction. That conversation should have already started. By 2028, at least, it will have a venue.
#NuclearSummitExpoLATAM #NuclearEnergy #B2BNuclearMatchmaking #NuclearNetworking #EnergyTransition #SustainableEnergy #CleanEnergy #SafeEnergy #NuclearEnergy #SustainableEnergy #CleanEnergy #SafeEnergy #SMR #Microreactors #LATAM
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