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Julieta Romero pulls out her pens, hesitates for a moment and chooses green. He’s in no hurry, but his pace shows that he knows every move by heart. First one blow, then the next, and little by little the figure of a dragon emerges, those mythological creatures present in Greek and Asian cultures who have the ability to be destructive and malevolent as well as noble and useful, the same qualities as he observes in nuclear energy, the field in which he has been active for more than a decade. Within minutes his right hand stops. The latest work of this engineer who watches over the security of Argentina and has always kept active her double passion: art and science is ready.
Romero (Quilmes, 35 years old) graduated 12 years ago as a nuclear engineer from the renowned Balseiro Institute in Bariloche, Río Negro, in cold Patagonia. Specializing in nuclear safety for years, she has just returned to Argentina after living in Paris for two years thanks to an agreement between the state-owned company Nucleoeléctrica, which employs her in Buenos Aires, and the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO, for its acronym in Spanish), English), where he devoted himself to studying European nuclear power plants, in a context marked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the threat of a possible explosion at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
As a nuclear safety expert, she is responsible for analyzing all possible accidents that can occur in a plant in order to avoid them. “A Chernobyl-like explosion is the worst-case scenario, but there are scales. An accident is also a fall from a ladder, but this does not affect the safety of a facility,” he explains. “My job is to be prepared for situations that hopefully never arise,” Romero reflects in an interview with América Futura.
Drawing by Juliet Romero. Valentina Fusco / The Country
A nuclear engineer in Argentina
There are three nuclear power plants in Argentina: Atucha I and Atucha II and Embalse. The country is among the leaders in the international nuclear industry, considered “clean” or with a low environmental impact due to its ability to provide electricity on a large scale, but less polluted than other energies due to the gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect .
Romero says there is still work to be done in the country, but he appreciates the place Argentina occupies and highlights the Central Argentina de Elementos Nucleares reactor project, which could have a prototype by 2026 and will allow electricity from be delivered to remote areas from the major urban centers and industrial poles. “It will be used to power the power grid,” he summarizes.
In addition, nuclear technology has numerous applications that go beyond energy orientation, e.g. B. Radiation protection research and the safety of people exposed to radiation by undergoing X-rays or undergoing prolonged nuclear medicine treatment for cancer.
Julieta Romero, in her apartment in the Palermo district, Buenos Aires. Valentina Fusco / The Country
Existential crisis, art and the magic wand of passion
By the time he was 17, Romero had an existential crisis. She had to choose a profession, but no option could completely seduce her: since childhood she was fascinated by the hard sciences, especially mathematics and physics, but she could not shed her love for drawing, which blossomed into painting about his parents’ house. “I wondered when the wand of passion would touch me,” he says.
Born in Quilmes, a district in the province of Buenos Aires, as a child she moved with her parents to Bariloche, where there is a nuclear center and the Balseiro, founded in 1955 during the government of Juan Domingo Perón and considered one of one of the world’s most important study and research centers for engineering and physics. “I came by accident. I’ve always liked anything to do with science and biology. I was very curious, hence my interest in physics, how things work, I wanted to know why. He asked me questions that make my head spin,” he says, laughing.
With more doubts than certainties, Julieta decided to study physics and keep art as a hobby, although she always showed it. “I can’t stop drawing, I get lost for hours, it fascinates me, it’s the only thing that allows me to escape from space-time,” he says.
In order to be admitted to the institute, they had to complete two years of engineering studies, regardless of their orientation. The world changed then. “I understood that technology serves to understand the why of things and helps to solve problems. And that’s the second time I’ve thought about it,” he says.
The passion for drawing and love for engineering go hand in hand. “In engineering, I use artistic instruments all the time, it’s a tool, but it also serves as an inspiration to explain with a drawing why a cat lands on its paws. Nuclear engineering is also an art, it is poetry,” she summarizes passionately.
The stigma of the “race of men”
Julieta faced all sorts of obstacles on her way to becoming a nuclear engineer. “They told me it was a men’s race, it wasn’t for me. They saw me drawing during breaks and told me to study art,” he recalls. In addition, in a field where the majority of professionals are men, the macho component was not an afterthought. “My boyfriend at the time, who took the entrance exam with me and failed, even told me that I joined because they need a women’s quota,” she says.
In a lecture she gave years ago, she summed it up in a few words: “It quickly became clear to me that, as a woman, I have to prove again and again that I deserve to be where I am.” The nuclear world is full of very tall people, after Chernobyl there was a whole generation that didn’t want anything to do with it,” he explains. Now, while she sees positive changes, she believes there are still prejudices that keep women from pursuing careers “associated with men.”
The love of dragons and a “two passions” life
Julieta lost count of the number of dragons she drew, influenced by her love for the work of Ciruelo, the Argentine sculptor, and a reference to the fantastical genre. As a girl, she copied it and then started her own creations. Some of his work has been on display at WANO’s Paris offices and a few days ago an exhibition of kaiju – giant monsters – culminated at an art gallery in Buenos Aires where many of his originals were on display.
Recently received, she used every bus ride to stamp and give away her art. He calculates that he has come to give away more than 200 dragons. Julieta defines herself as “bi-passionate” and clarifies that technique, like drawing, is about showing creativity. “When faced with a problem, all the rules can be followed, but without opening your head you can’t find the best solutions,” he stresses.
The Argentine opens a notebook and quickly turns the pages. Each one has a drawing. On each page a colorful dragon, a sketch, an idea, or the lines of his next artistic movement. “The dragon,” he thinks aloud, “is powerful, but I thought he was noble. He has brutal potential, but at the same time wisdom and integrity. And that’s how nuclear energy seems to me: it has the potential to be horrible or incredible, but it’s a very noble energy because it’s clean.