Posted on 05/29/2005 10:51:33 PM PDT by HAL9000
Brazil has plans to build seven nuclear power plants reported Sunday the Sao Paulo press quoting government officials.The country currently has two nuclear power plants in operation and the major expansion is contemplated under the new Brazilian Nuclear Program (PNB), which the government is reviewing.
President Lula da Silva officials told newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo that the government considers the new nuclear plants essential to expanding Brazil's role as a player on the world stage and bolstering its bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
PNB is currently under a coordinated review by six ministries requested by President Lula da Silva on his return trip from China, May 2004. The two countries signed a nuclear cooperation agreement by which Brazil will provide enriched uranium for use in Chinese nuclear power plants.
Brazil currently operates the Angra I and Angra II plants in Angra dos Reis, in Rio de Janeiro state, and Angra III is nearing completion after some two decades of delays.
Although Brazil has significant uranium deposits, the mineral is currently sent to Canada and then Europe for further processing as a gas, before being shipped back to Brazil, where it is finally converted into solid material to fuel the nuclear plants.
According to PNB Brazil will have to spend some 14 billion US dollars to build the seven planned plants, which would increase the amount of nuclear energy to 4,100 megawatts. Brazil is also developing its own uranium enrichment technology.
Last November the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reached an agreement with Brazil for the inspection of the experimental Resende uranium-enrichment plant. For months before, Brazil and the UN Atomic Energy Commission clashed over these inspections.
Uranium used as fuel for nuclear power plants in its highly enriched form can be employed in the manufacturing of nuclear weapons.
Brasilia had denied IAEA inspectors access to its centrifuges on the grounds that they employ proprietary technology that took the country twenty years to develop at a cost of nearly one billion US dollars. The Brazilian government claimed the right to protect what it saw as trade secrets and repeatedly denied it was trying to develop an atomic bomb.
The impasse ended when the IAEA agreed to the restrictions imposed by Brazil on inspections. Technicians who finally inspected the Resende plant were given limited access to the centrifuges but saw enough as to confirm that no diversion of the enriched mineral for other purposes was being carried out.
The Brazilian centrifuges, developed by the military, use electromagnetic levitation that supposedly consumes less fuel and is 25% less costly than enrichment methods used by developed countries such as United States, Europe and Japan.
Must be nice. Wish WE could do the same.
Niceee Hal
Rack the Brazil
Does anyone know how the technology to deal with nuclear waste has improved since the 70's?
Good move by Brazil, looks like they are finally beating down some of their luddite marxists.. Nuclear energy is the power source of the 21st century.
On the other hand our luddites are getting stronger and advocating wind power.. the power source of the 13th century.
Does this make sense? How does making electricity from nuclear reactors somehow mean the country is ready to fulfill the mission of the UN Security Council by agreeing to "investigate any situation threatening international peace, recommend procedures for peaceful resolution of a dispute, call upon other member nations to completely or partially interrupt economic relations as well as sea, air, postal, and radio communications, or to sever diplomatic relations, and enforce its decisions militarily, if necessary."
Lulu wants nuke weapons.
The good news just keeps on comin'.
WHOOPS
With that much capacity, Lula could export electricity to neighboring countries as a bargaining chip for Brazil to win the permanent seat for South America in the future expanded Security Council.
Brazil of 2005 is not the same Brazil of 1985. Its a vasty different country...and its the virtual leader of South America (as much as Colombia and Argentina thinks otherwise). And if most countries would be honest about energy consumption...there would be more plants built. The energy requirements of the top ten industrial countries have not decreased a single bit over the past 20 years...they increase each year. The middle-class...across the entire globe...is demanding what comes with their position in life...and electrical power is critical.
daSilva the communist, needs those nukes built so he can help china launch on us from two theatres, perhaps three counting cuba....
WWNUKEM is on the way.
Bingo! That is the real underlying message. Think Iran with a Portugese accent...
When are we going to get the IDEA in America. We need new power plants, new oil refineries, new water and wastewater plants. Get the Environmental Protection Agency out of control. It is the BIGGEST COMMUNIST organization in this country. No one in it is elected by us!
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