Brazil studies future nuclear sites
Brazil has taken another step towards wider use of nuclear energy with a technical cooperation deal to examine sites for future build.
The deal was between nuclear utility Eletronuclear and the Empresa de Pesquita Energética (Energy Research Company, EPE), part of the Ministry of Mines and Energy.
The two will cooperate to develop preliminary studies for selection of future nuclear sites, of which Brazil wants to establish four by 2030. Led by EPE, the study will primarily use public databases built up by various national geologic and natural resource authorities.
Nuclear power is underused in South America with only major players Argentina, Brazil and Mexico employing the technology and only at a small scale. Brazil currently has only one nuclear power plant, Angra, which features two operating reactors and one under construction as of early June. While Brazil has potential for expansion in large hydro, this comes with ecological concerns as well as difficulties in transmitting power long distances over dense forests.
In 2007 a National Energy Plan produced by EPE was adopted by government, stipulating that four new nuclear sites should be found in the southeast, south and mid-west of the country. EPE said the following states would be part of the preliminary survey: Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Parana, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Goias and Mato Grosso do Sul.
Ministers have previously said an area between Recife and Salvador (a 650 kilometre stretch of coast in the northeast that spans the states of Bahia, Pernambuco, Alagoas and Sergipe) was under consideration and that the first reactor could come online in 2019. Eletronuclear set up an office in Recife one year ago after those states expressed an interest in hosting a nuclear power plant.
President of EPE, Mauricio Tolmasquim, said cooperation with Eletronuclear would be important to EPE’s study, due to the nuclear operator’s experience in the technology. For his part, Eletronuclear president Othon Luiz Pinheiro da Silva linked the expansion of nuclear energy to the development of the country as a whole.
Source: World Nuclear News
Developing world opposition mounts to anti-counterfeiting agreement
Just as the G8-G20 meetings conclude in Muskoka and Toronto, another round of negotiations on the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement resumes in Switzerland.
In the aftermath of the last round of discussions, a draft version of the ACTA text was publicly released, temporarily quieting criticism about the lack of transparency associated with an agreement that currently touches on all forms of intellectual property, including patents, trademark and copyright.
While the transparency concerns are no longer in the spotlight, mounting opposition to the agreement from the developing world, particularly powerhouse economies such as India, China and Brazil, is attracting considerable attention. The public opposition from those countries – India has threatened to establish a coalition of countries against the treaty – dramatically raise the political stakes and place Canada between a proverbial rock and hard place, given its close ties to the U.S. and ambition to increase economic ties with India and China. Continued…
Read more: Michael Geist, The Toronto Star
Iran welcomes Turkish and Brazilian fuel ideas
Iran gave an upbeat assessment of Turkish and Brazilian mediation efforts in its nuclear dispute with the West, welcoming “in principle” ideas aimed at reviving a stalled U.N.-backed atom fuel swap deal with major powers.
“New formulas have been raised about the exchange of fuel … I think we can arrive at practical agreements on these formulas,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in remarks published by the Iran daily on Saturday.
“That is why we welcomed the proposals in principle … and left the details for more examination.” He did not elaborate on the content of the proposals.
His comments appeared part of an Iranian attempt to avert a possible new round of U.N. sanctions on the Islamic state over a nuclear program the West fears is designed to develop bombs.
Turkey and Brazil are currently non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
Analysts say Iran may be trying to buy time and to split the six world powers — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — which are discussing additional punitive measures against the Islamic Republic.
Iran, the world’s fifth-largest crude exporter, says it only seeks to generate electricity and has repeatedly refused to bow to international demands to halt sensitive atomic activity.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier this week agreed “in principle” to Brazilian mediation on the proposed fuel swap exchange, Iranian media reported.
The powers see the plan as a way to remove much of Iran’s low-enriched uranium stockpile to minimize the risk of this being used for atomic bombs, while Iran would get specially processed fuel to keep its nuclear medicine program running.
But the proposal broke down over Iran’s insistence on doing the swap only on its territory, rather than shipping its LEU abroad in advance, and in smaller, phased amounts, meaning no meaningful cut in a stockpile which grows day by day.
“ULTIMATELY POSITIVE”
Turkey and Brazil have been trying to revive the fuel deal in a bid to stave off further sanctions. Iran has also put forward a counterproposal, dismissed by Western officials.
The United States is lobbying U.N. Security Council members to back sanctions including proposed measures targeting Iranian banks, shipping and the country’s all-important energy sector.
But Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told Reuters on Friday his country saw a window of opportunity and a willingness by Iran to reach a negotiated solution over its nuclear program. He met Ahmadinejad in Tehran last week.
Russia and China, veto-wielding members of the Security Council which have significant commercial links with Iran, have said they are willing to give Turkey and Brazil more time to resuscitate the fuel proposal.
Brazil favors a mooted compromise in which Iran could export its uranium to another country in return for higher-enriched fuel for a Tehran research reactor. Iran has so far insisted the exchange must take place on its territory.
“The framework set out by the countries (Turkey and Brazil), alongside our own country’s recent proposal, has the potential from the perspective of Iran for arriving at a final common point and becoming operational,” Mehmanparast said.
“At any rate, we believe the efforts being undertaken by friendly countries, such as Turkey and Brazil, can ultimately be positive,” he added.
Source: Yahoo! News
New nuclear reactor for Brazil
BRAZIL is to build a US$483 million (S$671 million) nuclear reactor to produce radioactive material for medical use as well as industrial-grade enriched uranium, local media reported Wednesday, citing a cabinet minister.
‘The multipurpose reactor has a very important role in the nuclear programme’ Science and Technology Minister Sergio Rezende said in the daily O Estado de Sao Paulo.
The reactor will be built in Ipero, 130 kilometre from the south-eastern city of Sao Paulo, in an area where the Brazilian navy is developing a nuclear submarine project and building ultracentrifuges to enrich uranium. The reactor will be used for nuclear medicine, producing what are known as radiopharmaceuticals for diagnosing and treating diseases like cancer, Rezende said, as well as produce industrial-level enriched uranium starting in 2014.
The announcement came as senior officials from around the world meet at the United Nations to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and ahead of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s May 16-17 trip to Iran.
Lula in February announced that two new nuclear power plants would be built in Brazil’s north-east.
Brazil has an ambitious civilian nuclear programme, and for more than 20 years, has had two nuclear plants in Angra dos Reis, in Rio de Janeiro state. The country’s constitution bans the presence of nuclear weapons on Brazilian territory.
Source: The Straits Times / AFP
