Brazil Resists Plan to Allow Spot Inspection of Nuclear Site

[The Yankee]

Story published December 28, 2003 by The New York Times.

Brazil Resists Plan to Allow Spot Inspection of Nuclear Site
By LARRY ROHTER

Published: December 28, 2003

BRASÍLIA, Dec. 27 — Brazil has announced that by mid-2004 it expects to join the select group of nations producing enriched uranium and that within a decade it intends to begin exporting the product. But it is balking at giving international inspectors unimpeded access to the plant that will produce the nuclear fuel.

Officials here describe the uranium enrichment effort as entirely peaceful in purpose, aimed at providing fuel far short of weapons grade for the country's nuclear power plants. But they also maintain that as a peaceful nation, Brazil, which has the world's sixth-largest known deposits of uranium, should not be subject to the same regimen of unannounced spot inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran and Libya have recently accepted.

"All we've got are a couple of itty-bitty reactors," Roberto Amaral, the minister of science and technology in the left-wing government that took office in January, said in an interview this month. "It is necessary to be worried about what goes on out there, not here."

The issue has come to a boil now because work has concluded on a uranium enrichment plant that officials say will be ready to begin production as early as next May.

Mark Gwozdecky, a spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a telephone interview from the organization's headquarters in Vienna, "We are working and have been working for some time with the government and authorities in Brazil to develop an appropriate verification regime for this new facility," but the agency otherwise declined comment.

After years of resistance, Brazil adhered to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1997 and has since permitted limited, controlled visits to its nuclear facilities. But it has refused to approve the so-called additional protocol that authorizes spot inspections. Diplomats here say the international agency earlier this month sent a letter asking for a clear, prompt and definitive response.

During Brazil's military dictatorship, from 1964 to 1985, the government clandestinely pursued a nuclear weapons program. In 1981, Brazil and Iraq signed a nuclear cooperation agreement that, according to an I.A.E.A. report issued last year, led the government to ship 26.7 tons of uranium dioxide to Baghdad. In 1989, the former head of Brazil's nuclear weapons program worked in Iraq as a consultant until American pressure forced his recall.

With the return of democratic civilian rule, Brazil and its historic rival Argentina jointly renounced the manufacture of nuclear weapons and set up a mutual inspection system. But the Brazilian program continued secretly, and when a new government came to power in 1990, it found and destroyed a 1,050-foot-deep shaft built by the Air Force in the heart of the Amazon that scientists said had all the characteristics of a nuclear test site.

In addition, the Brazilian Navy has long been working on a program to build nuclear-powered submarines, which would require a degree of enrichment higher than that needed for a power plant.

During the presidential campaign he won last year, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticized the Nonproliferation Treaty as unjust, saying it favored countries that already have nuclear weapons.

Then, during the new government's first week in office in January, Mr. Amaral caused a furor when he argued that Brazil should acquire the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon. He backed away from that position after he was severely criticized here and in Argentina.

This month Mr. Amaral publicly criticized the I.A.E.A.'s position on spot inspections as "idiotic" and "foolish." But he also said, "We're not interested in a bomb and we've never made a bomb or ordered it used in a war against Argentina, so we have the moral and ethical authority to talk about this subject."

Now, I don't think Brazil is going to go and start producing nuclear weapons. They're a democracy now that has shown some interest in peace, even if you don't like the current president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. However, I strongly disagree with this decision not to at least calm people's fears about what the military junta was doing in decades past.

Brazil should do what South Africa, the Ukraine, and now Libya, for example have and are doing, let the IAEA inspect the site. Just because the inspectors are there doesn't mean that they cannot continue harnessing nuclear power. But in such a world, even the most peaceful intentions can quickly be turned into devastating offensive capability should there ever be a madman in power or a military takeover, which I see as quite unlikely in Brazil now. This will also calm fears in Argentina. While the two nations are easing tensions, they have been historic rivals and tensions have been tight when both nations were ruled by military strongmen.

Perhaps the Brazilians (or even Argentinians) on this board can explain why Brazil is so defiant. If I see one of my Brazilian friends online, I will message them and ask what's going on, if they know. I have several friends in Brazil, and we've talked politics before. I might also ask my Argentinian friend about this.

I hope the Brazilian leadership will correct this error at once.

 

[Patroklos]

It is just a simple inspection, if they are not going to be producing weapons then what reason do they ahve to resist? If you declare yourself to be anuclear power then go ahead and resist, as we know you are making weapons anyways. The only reason that you would want to keep that information secret is if you are doing something wrong, or you are an idealist who just likes to make things difficult for the hell of it.

-Pat

 

[Archer 007]

Brazil is only hurting themselves with this.

 

[The Yankee]

Yes, I'd hate to see any actions being taken as a result of their resistence. Not when Brazil is starting to come back a bit, economically and bring Argentina with them. Any economic penalties would surely hurt Argentina as well, and others also.

 

[amadeus]

Lula himself said he would pull out of the NPT and start a nuclear weapons program.

 

[The Yankee]

Where and when did he say this? Could you, or any people in Brazil or elsewhere, back it up?

I do know all the leaders since the military junta have resisted.

 

[h4ppy]

Am I the only one who sees nothing wrong with this? Brazil is doing nothing bad so the inspectors are not needed or wanted. Brazil is a working democracy and is not being run by extremists.

 

[amadeus]

http://www.rense.com/general31/braz.htm

http://www.iht.com/articles/123243.html

http://globalization.about.com/library/weekly/aa122302a.htm

http://www.tfp.org/lulawatch/jan03/vol1/vol1.html

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0301-01.htm

I tried to find a variety of sources, but I don't speak Portuguese

 

[The Yankee]

Well, thanks. Always good to at least see some place that backs up your statement. Perhaps I'll get someone to read it and summarize for me. I doubt I'll talk with my friends soon, though. Perhaps there are more statements in Brazilian websites.

h4appy- It's the potential. Suppose Lula is overthrown in a coup and the new general in charge wanted to attack Argentina. It's not likely, no, but that general could always take the new uranium and further process it. It may very well be true that Iran is developing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes (not likely, but say they are). Would you trust that?

Did you think that South Africa wanted nuclear weapons during this past decade? Did you think that the Ukraine was likely to seek weapons and go on a bombing rampage? Probably not, but it was still good thing that they were inspected and dismantled any offensive capabilities. What is the harm if Brazil allows this?

 

[The Chosen One]

Anyone bothered by the part "intendings to begin exporting Enriched Uranium within a decade"?

 

[Pongui]

Originally posted by The Chosen One
Anyone bothered by the part "intendings to begin exporting Enriched Uranium within a decade"?

Yes, as a Canadian it worries me. Those Brazilians will undercut us!

***

There's clearly nothing to gain by upholding the NPT. Nuclear weapons states have no intention of upholding their own side of the deal. Now what's left of NPT gets fluttered around accusingly at the only states that actually do adhere to it, all half-page of it. Shameless behaviour.

 

[The Yankee]

Something stronger does need to be put in place, I think. But I still think Brazil should allow access. It's not as if the IAEA would pull the plug, if there's nothing to hide.

 

[Pongui]

That would open the door to fantastic bureacracy - embodied by the IAEA, and complicate the programme in ways we never see on front page. It would be a drag.

It could be a weight, pressed by nuclear exporters against the fledgling industry. It's happened before.

It could be a wedge, pounded by states fearful of Brazilian nuclear weapons, to interrogate and search and obsess and just imagine what if.

It could be a lever, a diplomatic tool for exacting unrelated demands of Brazil by means too complicated for casual reading, so all the more effective.