Science and Technology Minister Sergio Rezende told the Agencia Brasil government news agency May 6 that the plant will save Brazil the millions of dollars it spends to enrich fuel at Urenco, the European enrichment consortium.

The Brazilian Constitution bans the military use of nuclear energy, and the country has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The government-run nuclear company Industrias Nucleares do Brasil SA said the plant will be capable of enriching natural uranium to contain less than 5 percent uranium-235, an isotope needed to fuel its reactors.

Warheads need ore that has been enriched to 95 percent uranium-235, a material Brazil says it can't and won't produce.

Brazil's nuclear program began during a 1964-85 military dictatorship, and the ruling generals had secret plans to test an atomic bomb underground in the Amazon jungle.

The Japan Times Weekly: May 13, 2006
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