Brazil nuclear plant decision seen in September
Date: 15-Aug-02
Country: BRAZIL
The head of the Brazilian Nuclear Institute, Everton Carvalho, told a news conference during an international congress on nuclear energy in Rio de Janeiro that he expected a favorable decision from the government.
Carvalho said project financing schemes, involving international banks, had already been prepared and were awaiting a green light from the government's energy council, which has on several occasions delayed the decision.
The Angra nuclear power complex, located on the wooded shore of a picturesque bay between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, already has two reactors. Environmentalists allege the reactors are not safe enough and condemn the expansion plans.
Some government officials and federal power holding Eletrobras , whose eletronuclear unit is responsible for Angra, say the nuclear energy is safe, cheap and should be used more and more to help Brazil overcome its power problems, which led to rationing last year.
Now, "green" hydroelectric plants account for over 90 percent of Brazil's electricity but droughts and bad planning had emptied water reservoirs, causing an acute shortage.
Carvalho pointed out that Brazil is home to the world's sixth-biggest uranium reserves and, with the domestic technologies to enrich the material for its use as fuel now nearly in place, should expand its nuclear power capacity.
He said Angra 1 and 2 accounted for about 6 percent of all power consumed in Brazil, while the third reactor could raise this share to 9 percent. In comparison, France's 58 nuclear power plants produce twice as much power as the whole of Brazil.
"The intelligent solution is to combine all sources of power, especially those that can be produced locally," Carvalho said. "Our biggest vulnerability is the dependence on foreign capital."
Brazil is suffering a crisis of investor confidence caused by concerns over its huge $250 billion debt ahead of presidential elections in October.