A close adviser to President Javier Milei is at the centre of an escalating internal and judicial dispute over alleged irregularities at Argentina’s state-owned nuclear operator.
Demian Reidel, president of Nucleoeléctrica Argentina SA, the state-owned company that operates the country’s nuclear power plants, is facing complaints related to the firm’s procurement processes and alleged overpricing in contracts for services and software.
Reidel, an economist and physicist who previously worked at the Central Bank during Federico Sturzenegger’s tenure, has emerged as one of Milei’s key economic advisers. He was appointed to lead Nucleoeléctrica, also known as NA-SA, in April 2025. Within libertarian circles he is seen as a technically influential figure with a strong ideological imprint and direct influence over strategic areas of the state, including the energy and nuclear sectors.
The most high-profile dispute centres on a tender for cleaning services in sensitive areas of the Atucha I and II plants, a contract classified as critical because it involves zones with radiological risk.
But according to reporting by Perfil, the bidding process was marked by changes to admissibility requirements, shortened deadlines and technical criteria that sharply reduced competition.
Of nine companies that initially submitted bids, only two – LX Argentina and La Mantovana Servicios Generales – passed the first technical review. Days later, another firm, Limpiolux, was added at the financial stage despite not having been technically evaluated by the requesting department.
That move triggered strong internal objections, with critics warning that it undermined traceability and breached basic administrative procedures.
All three companies submitted offers well above prevailing price levels. LX Argentina’s proposal was the lowest among them, positioning it as the likely winner, but still significantly higher than the existing contract. An internal complaint states that its offer exceeded the cost of the existing contract by at least 140 percent – a gap that complainants say would have caused significant financial damage to the company.
Juan Pablo Nolasco Sáenz, a plant manager at Atucha I and II, filed a submission with the company’s Integrity Committee warning of internal pressure, attempts to revise technical reports that had already been approved, and requests to economically “justify” higher-priced bids. The filing also refers to interventions by departments without direct technical responsibility and repeated urgent phone calls linked to the process.
After the contents of the complaint became known, Nucleoeléctrica’s board temporarily removed general manager Marcelo Famá and administrative coordination manager Hernán Pantuso from their posts. Both had been appointed by Reidel and were regarded as part of his inner circle, exposing sharp divisions within the company’s leadership.
The Atucha case is not isolated. Before this dispute became public, another company, Distribón SRL, had already taken another Nucleoeléctrica cleaning tender to federal court, alleging bid-rigging through arbitrary requirements and deadlines it said were impossible to meet for services involving high technical complexity.
Concerns over procurement practices have also extended beyond service contracts. Earlier in January, the Asociación Trabajadores del Estado (ATE) state-workers’ union filed a formal complaint against Reidel’s management over a technology contract linked to the migration of the company’s SAP system to SAP S/4HANA.
According to the union filing, the cost of the project allegedly rose from an initial estimate of around US$600,000 to approximately US$7 million, a surge the union argued lacked sufficient documentation and oversight.
ATE said the escalation lacked transparent justification, audit trails or adequate internal controls and argued that, taken together with the Atucha cleaning tender, it pointed to a broader weakening of internal controls under Reidel’s management.
Reidel has not publicly responded to these accusations, and Nucleoeléctrica did not provide a public statement on these matters when approached by some outlets.
The La Nación newspaper reported that the company declined to comment on the reports of alleged overpricing or to explain the processes under review, a similar response to that given to Perfil.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
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