Officially established by President Juan Perón's Decree No 10.936, CNEA filled the need for a state organ to oversee the funding of the Huemul Project in Bariloche.

[1] In 1955, José Antonio Balseiro, a research scientist and member of the first review panel on the Huemul Project, took over the recently created Instituto de Física de Bariloche, now Instituto Balseiro, which used Richter's facilities in the mainland, but abandoned the buildings in Huemul Island.

[1] The facilities in Buenos Aires were expanded after the closure of the Huemul Project, and by the 1960s became larger in terms of size and expenditure than those in Bariloche.

Since then Argentina operates three pressurized heavy-water reactors (PHWR), that use heavy water as moderator and coolant and unenriched natural uranium as fuel, for the generation of electricity.

Its academic unit, the Instituto Sábato, focused in Materials Science grants Licenciado, MSc and PhD degrees in association with the Universidad de San Martín.

Its researchers published hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific papers and provided important contributions to applied and basic science.

Its RA-6 reactor was built to train Balseiro's nuclear engineering students as well to conduct basic and applied research.

There are other smaller sites around the country concerned with particular activities each The CNEA currently holds two U.S. patents(see external links) Although power reactors in the 100-megawatt range have not been built by Argentina on its own, INVAP S.E., a company owned by the Río Negro Province, started by graduates of the Instituto Balseiro in 1976, has exported research reactors to Peru, Algeria, Egypt and most recently Australia (2000).