Argentina’s Economic Crisis Thwarts Bid to Go Nuclear With Lithium Bounty

Nuclear scientists eager to add value to Argentina’s lithium bounty are being stymied by the country’s notorious economic problems.

For decades, the nation’s world-renowned atomic researchers have toiled on projects in Buenos Aires and Bariloche in Patagonia. Now, with Argentina emerging as the fastest-growing producer of lithium needed for the global shift to electric energy, they’re working on innovations to convert the battery metal into something scarcer than gold: lithium-6 isotopes that have key nuclear applications.