05 May 2009

Brazil has started enriching uranium

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Brazil has inaugurated its first uranium enrichment facility to produce the type of fuel for nuclear power plants that Iran is running into trouble for attempting to produce... Brazil has managed to assure the international community its intentions are industrial and commercial, not military...

The Brazilian Constitution bans the military use of nuclear energy, and the country has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. No objections to Brazil's uranium enrichment program have been heard from the United States...
Of course, regimes change, and a constitution can be changed. In fact, if you read further in the article...
But instead, the Brazilian government is planning to become an exporter of enriched uranium. Science and Technology Minister Rezende said last September that the country currently possesses the world's sixth large uranium reserves, but a more detailed study could put Brazil in third place.

"If we know how to enrich uranium, which we do, we may eventually even become exporters of enriched uranium," Rezende observed.

The minister said that, in order to sell enriched uranium on the international market, it would be necessary to invest in technology, to raise production, and alter the Constitution, which precludes uranium exports.

The genie is out of the bottle, folks, and it is never going back in...

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