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Brazil enriching uranium, and potential for nuclear weapons

Brazil continues to have a program to produce enriched uranium for power plants, and opened its first uranium enrichment plant in 2006.

The Folly of Brazil’s Exceptionalism, THE HUFFINGTON POST, Daniel Wagner: 9 Aug 2010, “……..Brazil first embarked on a nuclear program in the 1930s and pursued a covert nuclear weapons program until the 1970s. It retains the ability to create nuclear weapons but agreed not to do so under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement, and as a signatory to the 1994 Treaty of Tlatelolco, which bans nuclear weapons in Latin America. But Brazil continues to have a program to produce enriched uranium for power plants, and opened its first uranium enrichment plant in 2006.

In its negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the time, Brazilian negotiators did not want to allow inspection of its centrifuges, arguing that doing so would reveal technological secrets. Following extensive negotiations, the IAEA relented and agreed not to directly inspect the centrifuges, but rather the composition of the gas entering and leaving the centrifuges. Brazil won a significant victory and the U.S. was forced to resort to merely stating that it was “sure” Brazil had no plans to develop nuclear weapons.

If Brazil decided to pursue a nuclear weapon today its centrifuges could be reconfigured to produce enough highly enriched uranium to produce nuclear weapons. In addition, Brazil has ambition to develop a nuclear submarine fleet, having authorized the construction of a prototype submarine propulsion reactor in 2007. So Brazil has similar proliferation capability as Pakistan and North Korea but is seen as a ‘team player,’ having gotten a green light as one of the good guys from the IAEA and the United States, while actually having manipulated and emasculated both for its own benefit……..

Daniel Wagner: The Folly of Brazil’s Exceptionalism

August 10, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Brazil, politics international, Uranium | antinuclear, enriched, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear technology, plutonium, reactors, uranium