Tweet
Brazil announces multimillion-dollar investment in nuclear sub.
Earthtimes.org
11 JUL 07
Brasilia - Brazil has announced millions of dollars in investments for the construction of a nuclear submarine as part of its plans to resume its nuclear programme, it emerged late Tuesday (early Wednesday GMT). A total of 1.04 billion reais (547 million dollars) would be spent, President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva said during a visit to a navy research centre in Ipero in the state of Sao Paulo.
Brazil already was among the few countries worldwide that had the technology for uranium enrichment, the former trade union leader said.
"Why shouldn't we have great dreams and say that at some point we will have a nuclear submarine?" Lula said.
Brazil started enriching uranium in May 2006 as the ninth country worldwide to master the fuel cycle.
The country already runs two nuclear power plants.
President Lula has emphasized repeatedly that he sees the use of nuclear power as a way of meeting the growing energy needs of the country.
Only in June, after 21 years, did the government in Brasilia decide to complete the nuclear power plant Angra 3 with German aid.
The construction of Angra 3 is contentious because it is located in the south west of Rio de Janeiro state near a natural reserve.
Experts also say the area, with its unstable soil, is threatened by earthquakes and landslides.
The project is part of a 1975 nuclear agreement between the former Western German government in Bonn and the former military dictatorship in Brazil.
Respected physicist Jose Goldemberg is one of many critics of a resumption of Brazil's nuclear plans.
"For countries without natural resources, such as France or Japan, nuclear power can be an alternative. If our country completed only a few of the hydro-power plants under construction, it could replace the energy production of 10 nuclear power plants," the scientist at Sao Paolo University said.
However, the government in Brasilia was mainly interested in prestige, he added.
The Brazilian nuclear programme originated during the military dictatorship of 1964-1985, when the generals ordered among other things the development of a secret trial plan to fire a nuclear bomb in the Amazon rainforest.
The plans were officially declared void in 1990.
Lula and his followers have said they only intended to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes.
Earthtimes.org
11 JUL 07
Brasilia - Brazil has announced millions of dollars in investments for the construction of a nuclear submarine as part of its plans to resume its nuclear programme, it emerged late Tuesday (early Wednesday GMT). A total of 1.04 billion reais (547 million dollars) would be spent, President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva said during a visit to a navy research centre in Ipero in the state of Sao Paulo.
Brazil already was among the few countries worldwide that had the technology for uranium enrichment, the former trade union leader said.
"Why shouldn't we have great dreams and say that at some point we will have a nuclear submarine?" Lula said.
Brazil started enriching uranium in May 2006 as the ninth country worldwide to master the fuel cycle.
The country already runs two nuclear power plants.
President Lula has emphasized repeatedly that he sees the use of nuclear power as a way of meeting the growing energy needs of the country.
Only in June, after 21 years, did the government in Brasilia decide to complete the nuclear power plant Angra 3 with German aid.
The construction of Angra 3 is contentious because it is located in the south west of Rio de Janeiro state near a natural reserve.
Experts also say the area, with its unstable soil, is threatened by earthquakes and landslides.
The project is part of a 1975 nuclear agreement between the former Western German government in Bonn and the former military dictatorship in Brazil.
Respected physicist Jose Goldemberg is one of many critics of a resumption of Brazil's nuclear plans.
"For countries without natural resources, such as France or Japan, nuclear power can be an alternative. If our country completed only a few of the hydro-power plants under construction, it could replace the energy production of 10 nuclear power plants," the scientist at Sao Paolo University said.
However, the government in Brasilia was mainly interested in prestige, he added.
The Brazilian nuclear programme originated during the military dictatorship of 1964-1985, when the generals ordered among other things the development of a secret trial plan to fire a nuclear bomb in the Amazon rainforest.
The plans were officially declared void in 1990.
Lula and his followers have said they only intended to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes.
Comment