Latin America:

Brazil Says Nuclear Program Is Peaceful
23 January 2006

AGENCIA BRASIL (BRAZIL) - According to Industrias Nucleares do Brasil (INB) director Carlos Freire Moreira, Brazil’s first uranium enrichment factory (Pictured) in Resende, Rio de Janeiro, operated by INB, is exclusively industrial and commercial. The facility will supply fuel to Brazil’s two nuclear power plants. Moreira says Brazil is a signatory to nuclear non-proliferation treaties and the the Brazil-Argentina Nuclear Energy Application Agency (ABACC) will oversee operations at the Resende facility. He also says Brazil has a good relationship with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Aquilino Serra, a researcher at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, says competition in the field of uranium enrichment technology will be the only international concern relating to Resende. The Resende factory will enrich urnanium by 5%, the limit for industrial/commercial purposes. Serra said, "In order to make a bomb, you have to enrich to 95%."

Source Reliability: 7.0

Comment: Brazil's two nuclear power plants are Angra I and Angra II.

Latin America:

Brazil Ready To Enrich Uranium
23 January 2006

AGENCIA BRASIL (BRAZIL) – Brazil’s first uranium enrichment facility, in Resende, Rio de Janeiro, begins operation at the end of January 2006. Operated by Industrias Nucleares do Brasil (INB), the factory will supply 60% of the enriched uranium needed by the country’s two nuclear power plants, Angra I and Angra II, between now and 2012 – supplying 100% of the country’s enriched uranium by 2015. The Brazilian Navy, supported by the National Institute of Nuclear Research (IPEN), developed the technology for the facilty, which cost $172 million to build. Operation at the Resende facility makes Brazil the ninth nation capable of enriching uranium on an industrial/commercial scale.

Source Reliability: 7.0