Nuclear energy accounts for about 2% of Brazil's electricity. It is produced by two pressurized water reactors at Angra, which is the country's sole nuclear power plant. Construction of a third reactor begun on 1 June 2010,"Angra 3 tem nova data para entrada em operação: maio de 2018", Eletronuclear, 7 June 2013. <http://www.eletronuclear.gov.br/tabid/195/Default.aspx?NoticiaID=1074 > Retrieved 1 July 2013 but it is currently stalled. The sole Brazilian company in charge of nuclear energy production is Eletronuclear.Eletronuclear, <http://www.eletronuclear.gov.br/> Retrieved on 1 July 2013
Uranium exploration, production and export in Brazil is under state control through Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil although the government has announced it is ready to involve the private sector in the nuclear fuel industry.
Brazilian nuclear activities
Early years (1930–60) In Brazil, theoretical research in the field of nuclear energy began at the University of São Paulo (USP) in the late 1930s.Comissão Nacional de Energia Nuclear. Cronologia da Energia Nuclear no Brasil. Retrieved 10 March 2013 The following decade, Brazil became a supplier of mineral resources (monazite, thorium and uranium) to nuclear experimentation projects in the United States, such as the Manhattan Project.PATTI, Carlo (2012). Origins and Evolution of the Brazilian Nuclear Program (1947–2011). Retrieved 10 March 2013
In 1947, Álvaro Alberto, a Navy official and a vocal supporter of nuclear power, wrote the first Brazilian nuclear policy plan to be approved by Brazil's national security council, the Conselho de Segurança Nacional (CSN).Conselho de Segurança Nacional (1947). Ata da Décima Sessão da Coselho de Segurança Nacional. Retrieved 10 March 2013 Implementation of the plan began in 1951, with the establishment of Brazil's national research council, the Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas (CNPq), and the nomination of Alberto as its president. The institution's general purpose was to promote technological and scientific research in all areas of knowledge and CNPq had specific responsibilities related to the development of nuclear energy; such as promoting research on relevant mineral resources and undertaking the necessary measures to boost the industrialization of nuclear energy.
The path toward developing a Brazilian nuclear sector included the nationalization of nuclear activities and specific compensations for exporting strategic raw materials. Accordingly, Brazil attempted to negotiate trade agreements that, in exchange for Brazilian raw materials, would include provisions to grant easier access to sensitive technologies and training for Brazilian nuclear engineers. This policy granted Brazilian scientists and engineers opportunities to undertake academic exchanges and training in the U.S.PATTI, Carlo (2012). Brazil in Global Nuclear Order. PhD thesis. Universitá degli Studi di Firenze, Italy. p. 39.
CNPq sought to acquire nuclear technology from the U.S. and other countries. Washington, however, rejected Alberto's request to purchase a cyclotron from General Electric,The Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy in Brazil – Secret – Washington, 6 December 1951. FRUS 1951 vol. 1. University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center. Retrieved 1 July 2013 which would have allowed Brazil to conduct advanced nuclear physics experiments. Alberto also started negotiations for the acquisition of ultracentrifuges from West Germany.CAMARGO, Guilherme (2006). O Fogo dos Deuses. Rio de Janeiro: Contraponto, p. 188. .
By the mid-1950s Brazil's nuclear program had purchased 3 West German centrifuges for US$80,000.Archer, Renato. Política Nacional de Energia Atômica. Discurso proferido na Câmara dos Deputados na sessão do dia 6 de Junho de 1956. Rio de Janeiro: Departamento de Imprensa Nacional, 1956, p. 7 Although the centrifuges arrived in Brazil in 1956, they only became operational in the 1970s."Uma forte nação pacífica", Revista Veja, 2 July 1975. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
A Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (Comissão Parlamentar de Inquérito – CPI) established in 1956BRASIL. Resolução nº 49, de 10/02/56. Câmara dos Deputados. Brasília. Retrieved 10 March 2013. uncovered the illegal exports of atomic materials to the United States. It also revealed that Juarez Távora, chief of the military cabinet in the early stages of the Café Filho administration in 1954, acted in accordance with U.S. requests and adopted a new nuclear policy plan whereby the U.S. was considered the privileged partner of Brazil in the nuclear field.PEREIRA, Leandro da Silva Batista (2010). A Gênese do Programa Nuclear Brasileiro: Nacionalismo e Crítica ao Alinhamento Automático. XIV Encontro Regional da ANPUH-Rio, 2010. . Retrieved 10 March 2013
After the investigation was completed, the CPI argued in favor of a more nationalist approach to nuclear policy, resuming the plans advocated by Alberto and the CNPq. The new nuclear plan adopted by recently elected President Juscelino Kubitschek created a National Nuclear Energy Commission(Comissão Nacional de Energia Nuclear – CNEN) under presidential oversight.Conselho de Segurança Nacional (1956). Minutes of the Twentieth Session of the National Security Council. . Retrieved 10 March 2013 It also cancelled all the contracts related to atomic minerals exports.BRASIL. Diretrizes Governamentais para a Política Nacional de Energia Nuclear (1956), Diário Oficial da União, Brasília, 31 August 1956, seção 1, p. 6–7. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
In 1957 Brazil obtained its first research reactor from the U.S. under the "Atoms for Peace" program. IEA-R1, as it became known when it reached the Institute of Atomic Energy (Instituto de Energia Atômica – IEA) in São Paulo, was the first reactor ever to operate in the southern hemisphere. This was followed in 1960 by the research reactor TRIGA Mark 1, located at the Institute of Radioactive Research (Instituto de Pesquisas Radioativas – IPR) of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), which was used in training and research activities related to radioisotope production.
1961–72 By 1962 Brazil had built its first indigenous research reactor, the Argonauta, which commenced operations in 1965 at the Rio de Janeiro-based Nuclear Engineering Institute (Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear – IEN). The Argonauta was an adaptation of a reactor designed by the Argonne National Laboratory in the United States.Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear. Histórico do reator Argonauta. . Retrieved 10 March 2013
In the aftermath of the 1964 coup d’état that ousted the popularly elected government, the ruling military devised a nuclear policy based on the purchase of nuclear power plants in order to generate electricity but also create the conditions for an indigenous nuclear industrial complex inside Brazil.Política Nuclear do Brasil-6 October 1967 – Unclassified document.In FGV/CPDOC PNB pn/a 1967.02.24 [69-70/506]. Retrieved 28 June 2013 In the long term, stated the plan, Brazil would seek to acquire all the technologies necessary to master the nuclear fuel production cycle.Política Nacional de Energia Nuclear Diretrizes. Presidência da República. No date. Ultra Secreto. In: Conselho de Segurança Nacional (1967). Aviso n°2-2S-SG/CSN-BR. Confidencial. PNB ad 1967.02.23 [58-68/506]. . Retrieved 28 June 2013Conselho de Segurança Nacional (1967). Minutes of the Fortieth Session of the National Security Council. . Retrieved 10 March 2013 With regard to international standards mandating a limit to peaceful nuclear explosions (PNE), the military's nuclear policy affirmed that renouncing the right of independent fabrication of PNEs represented "a price too high to pay", since "1. the draft of the global Treaty does not represent a commitment toward disarmament for nuclear weapon countries; 2. France and China do not participate in the negotiations; 3. there are great perspectives in the use of nuclear explosives in mining, opening of ports, canals, and earthmoving, as has been demonstrated by U.S. experiences of the Plowshare program; 4. the knowledge of the technique leading to the construction of nuclear explosives, since subject to the international account and limited to specific objectives of economic development, neither constitutes proliferation nor is necessarily stimulated."Política Nuclear do Brasil 6 October 1967 In PNB pn/a 1967.02.24 . Retrieved 28 June 2013
Accordingly, in a CSN meeting, President Artur da Costa e Silva voiced arguments in favor of "doing research, mining and building devices that can explode" and added: "We will not call them bombs, we will call them devices that can explode. In 1968 a new CPI assessed existing mineral resources in Brazil for the nuclear program.BRASIL. Resolução nº 55, de 1967. Câmara dos Deputados, Brasília. Retrieved 10 March 2013 Two years later, the parliamentary commission completed its work and concluded that the Brazilian booming industrial growth meant a rising demand of electricity in the country, which confirmed the necessity of nuclear energy.Leitura e Publicação Da Matéria (1970). DCN1 28 11 70 PAG 5778 COL 04 Retrieved 10 March 2013BRASIL. Resolução nº 9, de 1971. Câmara dos Deputados, Brasília. . Retrieved 10 March 2013
Also in 1968, the government issued a secret "National Strategic Concept" arguing that the acquisition of nuclear science and technology was a means to overcome Brazil's peripheral position in world affairs.Conceito Estratégico Nacional – Ultra Secreto 25 June 1968. In CPDOC/FGV PNB ad 1967.02.23 Retrieved 28 June 2013 According to this perspective, Brazil could not accept the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), an international accord perceived by Brazil as an instrument to curtail the national development of nuclear energy in non-nuclear weapon countries, which did not solve the problem of nuclear weapons.PATTI, Carlo (2012). Brazil in Global Nuclear Order. PhD thesis. Universitá degli Studi di Firenze, Italy. p. 83.
After a large economic growth, Brazil invited different companies and consortiums to present projects for the construction of its first nuclear power plant. After receiving five different proposals, Brazil chose the one made by U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Company involving pressurized water reactors (PWR).LEITE, Antônio Dias (1997). A Energia do Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira. , p. 204–205.Interview with Witold Lepecki, CPDOC/FGV, Retrieved 1 July 2013. Simultaneously, Brazil started conversations with West Germany and a nuclear cooperation agreement was established between Brasília and Bonn.BRASIL. Decreto nº 65.160, de 15 de setembro de 1969. Senado Federal. . Retrieved 10 March 2013
While CNEN was finalizing the details of the contract with Westinghouse between May 1971 and April 1972, the United States Atomic Energy Commission (USAEC) approved the supply of nuclear fuel for Brazil's first nuclear power plant, Angra 1. The contract between CNEN and Westinghouse was signed in April 1972Eletronuclear. Information about Angra 1. . Retrieved 10 March 2013 and the construction of Angra 1 began.BRASIL. Decreto nº 71.207, de 5 de Outubro de 1972.Senado Federal. . Retrieved 10 March 2013
1973–78