BRAZIL-ENERGY: New Plant Energises Nuclear Programme

By Fabiana Frayssinet Reprint | | Print |

Fabiana Frayssinet

ANGRA DOS REIS, Brazil, Sep 4 1996 (IPS) - The Brazilian government, determined to achieve self-sufficiency in nuclear energy, has approved completion of a second nuclear power plant, thus revitalizing an ambitious programme left in limbo for some time.

Angra II, located in Angra Dos Reis, 160 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro, is scheduled to begin operations in 1999. It will raise the country’s energy capacity to 1,300 megawatts.

Those who support the use of nuclear energy see completion of the last phase of this plant — construction of which began 16 years ago — as the clearest sign yet of a revamping of the Brazilian Nuclear Programme.

Begun in 1969, the programme was gradually dismantled over the past decade.

“Angra II is symbolic in this sense: the country is reinaugurating its nuclear programme in full force, a programme for generating electric energy through nuclear power plants as sources of energy produced nationally,” said Guilherme Camargo, director of the Brazilian Association for Nuclear Energy, in an interview with IPS.

Environmental groups oppose the use of nuclear energy. They have made their point in this regard to the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

One critic of the project, Congressman Carlos Minc of the leftist Workers’ Party, has asserted that Angra II lacks even the minimum security conditions. “Why do we want nuclear energy if we have enormous hydroelectric potential that is still untapped?,” asked the representative.

Brazil has over 300,000 tons of uranium deposits, ranking it fifth in the world. But in order to use that mineral supply in its first nuclear power plant, Angra I, the product is shipped to Europe for enrichement.

Now, with two nuclear power plants and the plan to transfer of Angra II’s technology to a third power plant, there is an economic incentive for investing in local technology for enriching uranium.

“With the installation of more power plants, it will be very important to have control of the entire cycle in order to support our plants,” said Klever Cosensa, manager of thermo-nuclear generation at Angra II and III.

This was done by France and Japan. South Korea was currently doing the same — thus allowing these countries to dominate the whole process of production of the energy source.

Achieving control over the complete nuclear cycle in Brazil was one of the main objectives of the Brazilian Nuclear Program, which proposes the installation of eight nuclear power plants before year 2000, under an agreement with Germany.

Cosensa says financial problems prevented Brazil from achieving its objectives in line with the targets set. Demand was insufficient. “When all these plants were designed, we estimated a growth in demand for electrical energy which did not happen; there was therefore no money to pay for the projects,” Cosensa explains.

Now, the Brazilian government has indicated that it is ready to resume its path towards nuclear self-sufficiency.

In an interview with the magazine “Nuclear Brazil”, Brazil’s Secretary for Strategic Affairs, Ronaldo Sardenberg, notes that the budget for the National Committee for Nuclear Energy went from 13 million dollars in 1992 to 42 million in 1995.

And the budget for the Nuclear Industries of Brazil also increased — from 21 million dollars in 1992 to 42 million in 1995.

Sardenberg attributes the interest in reactivating the nuclear sector to president Cardoso’s understanding of “the importance of science and technology for development.”

“For a country like Brazil, which expects to be among the international competitors, it is important to emphasize the development of science and technology,” he added.

The Brazilian government, which has yet to sign the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty, wants to demonstrate to its society that there is a “positive side of nuclear energy” for pacific ends.

Among other uses, it will attempt to gear the application of nuclear energy towards medicine, agriculture and hydrology.