Investigacion Aplicada (INVAP) is a state owned company in Argentina’s Río Negro Province, headquartered in San Carlos de Bariloche, Patagonia, where the company was established in 1976. As a technology-based company INVAP, develops state of the art custom designed technology in a number of areas such as nuclear, space, medical, environmental and industrial to meet the requirements of its customers. As of 2008, INVAP employs more than 800 people, approximately 80% of which are employed as highly qualified technicians and professionals. Domestically, INVAP has close ties to the Argentine Commission of Atomic Energy (CNEA) and the Argentine Space Commission (CONAE) while internationally has relationships with the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO), and the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority (AEA). INVAP has been working on nuclear research since its founding in 1976, and according to their webpage, INVAP employees have worked on more than 15 nuclear reactors and facilities globally. INVAP started as a supplier in the nuclear field, having fully developed and built the Uranium Enrichment Plant for Argentina’s CNEA. INVAP has also supplied nuclear reactors, mostly research reactors, internationally for the Open Pool Australian Light-water Reactor (OPAL) in Australia, the ETRR-2 Reactor for the Egyptian AEA, the NUR Research Reactor in Algeria, the RP-0 and RP-10 reactors in Peru, and the RA-6 and RA-8 reactors in Argentina. INVAP has also worked with Cuba and Iran to some extent in addition to the countries it has supplied nuclear reactors to.