History of Nuclear Power in Brazil

Abstract

The 1973 energy crisis prompted the United States to suspend supplies of enriched uranium to the reactor being built in Brazil, Angra I. In 1975, the Brazil–Germany Nuclear Agreement was announced. The Programme was a failure. Today the Angra II nuclear reactor has been completed, the only reactor completed under the agreement with Germany. Brazil's last military President implemented the Parallel Nuclear Programme, which included uranium enrichment with the justification of developing the technology that had not been transferred through the Nuclear Agreement with Germany. In 1986, the existence of a deep shaft drilled by the Air Force was revealed. A Technical Report concluded that it had all the characteristics and dimensions required to test a nuclear bomb. Some years later, the Civilian Government acknowledged the existence of an underground nuclear explosion facility and symbolically sealed this shaft. The situation in Brazil has improved recently. Brazil ratified the Treaty of Tlatelolco on the denuclearisation of Latin America and established ABACC, an agency handling mutual inspections of nuclear facilities in Brazil and Argentina. Brazil also signed the Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty. The uranium enrichment activities are being transferred to a civilian industry. More importantly, I do not believe that the uranium enrichment project is intended to endow Brazil with the capacity to produce nuclear weapons.