Re: @@ Intelligence brief: Brazil's nuclear ambitions' @@

madmud, here is a little bed time story for you... the moral of which should be apparent to
those who give a darn.

there once was a partnership and one of the partners went through a family break-up which
resulted in divorce and one spouse seeking a restraining order against the other.

the other partners seeing that the family had trouble thought this would be an opportune time to
gain an advantage on the joint venture.

after a short period, the spouse approached the partnership and demanded her rights.

the partners suggested that since the agreement was with the husband, the wife had no legal
recourse.

the wife suggested that since the husband was the one who had been restrained and since the
husband signed up as a "family" not as an individual, that the husbands family and heirs should
have rights to his shares and profits

the joint venture still refused.

the wife initiated a course of action to seek revenge and make the joint venture partnership
useless to the other partners by supporting others to setup shop in direct competition against
the JV.

and now what you see is exactly what every one deserves.
the wife has her own facilities
others have their own facilities and the greedy JV partners are left with an oversized
production plant that is working at below capacity due to increased competition.



"madmud" <madmud@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:Aysbg.55969$oX5.720075@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Brazilians are civilized people....Iranians are sub-sub-human filth.A bunch of lunatics. A
hateful people.A bloodthirsty buch of losers. A RAT-PIG PEOPLE.


"Arash" <A7000@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:9e30e$446e47ec$d8fe9e2d$25602@xxxxxxxxxxxx
The Power and Interest News Report (PINR)
May 18, 2006

Intelligence Brief

Brazil's Nuclear Ambitions'

Brazil's Science and Technology Minister Sergio Rezende told the press on May 6 that Brasilia
has launched a uranium enrichment center for fueling its power plants. Brazil's first nuclear
enrichment facility, located in Resende (about 140 kilometers outside Rio de Janeiro), will
"save Brazil millions of dollars it now spends to enrich fuel at URENCO, the European enrichment
consortium", the minister said.

Brazil's move has great industrial, geopolitical, and financial significance.

With regard to industrial aspects, it is important to recall that the South American giant is
already one of the world's leaders in alternative energy. For three decades, it has consistently
promoted the use of ethanol in place of gasoline for use in automotives; therefore, ethanol now
accounts for as much as 20% of the Brazilian transport fuel market.

Although the use of carbohydrates instead of fossil fuels is not a recent discovery, Brazil's
determinacy to industrially implement ethanol as a commercially-viable alternative may pave the
way to decisive changes in the automobile market because the South American state is one of the
most promising emerging markets globally.

Brasilia is wagering on a combination between alternative fuels like ethanol and nuclear
power. Such a mix is similar to recent French plans to launch a new generation of nuclear plants
while boosting renewable energies and bio-fuels.

The geopolitical consequences of Brasilia's moves, however, are even more important. Early
this year, Brazilian authorities claimed their country is already well ahead on the path to
energy independence. Therefore, Brazil's entry into the nuclear club is a crucial step in its
struggle to end dependence on fossil energies. At a time of increasing regional and global
conflict over energy security, Brasilia's decision will greatly enhance its political
independence from both fossil energy producers and the great powers that deeply influence energy
geopolitics.

Brazil is South America's potential hegemon because of its size, resources, demography, and
geographic location. Its future independence from Venezuelan and Bolivian oil and gas will make
the country less vulnerable from potential blackmail by such medium regional powers, thus
reinforcing its position as a continental leader.

[See: "Bolivia's Energy Nationalization Causes Concern in Brazil and Argentina":
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=485 ]

Moreover, should Venezuela succeed in improving its economic fundamentals decisively as a
result of its present oil-based energy policy, it can be expected that Caracas will use fresh
financial strength to rapidly follow Brazil's path and try to access the nuclear club in its
turn. This development would have serious implications for the region.

Since the energy crisis -- due to growing oil and gas demand, fears of peak oil capabilities,
and geopolitical instability in oil-rich regions-- is nowadays structural, Brazil's nuclear
projects consolidate a global trend: atomic power is once again gaining momentum. Although costs
to finance nuclear plants and their security are often considered exorbitant, atomic energy
enjoys growing popularity 20 years after the Chernobyl disaster, as it appears more viable than
hydrogen-based solutions.

[See: "Intelligence Brief: French Energy Policy":
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=353 ]

The Brazilian civilian nuclear program will also constitute a thorny political-diplomatic
issue for the UN and the global political community. Brazil's purposes are in fact formally
identical to those of Iran's.

As Brazil goes nuclear, Tehran will not miss the opportunity to highlight the incomprehensible
difference of U.S. and Western diplomatic attitudes toward the two countries.

From a financial point of view, Brazil's move needs to be carefully examined by global
operators. As nuclear projects gain impetus worldwide, energy commodity hedge funds will get
involved in the economic game that will follow. The induced industrial sector and investments
will also be under scrutiny by financial decision makers and investors.
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_printable&report_id=491&language_id=1

=============================
Environment News Service (ENS)
May 8, 2006

Brazil Officially Starts First Uranium Enrichment Facility

news[AT]ens-news.com

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2006/20060508_rezendesergio.jpg
Sergio Rezendes is Brazil's Minister of Science and Technology

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2006/20060508_resende.jpg
Brazil's uranium enrichment facility is built on a former coffee plantation at Resende, Rio de
Janeiro state.

Rio De Janeiro -- Brazil has inaugurated its first uranium enrichment facility to produce the
type of fuel for nuclear power plants that Iran is attempting to produce. Western colonialists
object to Iranian nuclear program but they have no problem with Brazil doing exactly the same
thing!

No objections to Brazil's uranium enrichment program have been heard from the United States.

On Friday, Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil officially launched the first two centrifuges needed
for uranium enrichment at a facility in Resende, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The
centrifuges, which are already operating, have the capacity to produce two percent of the
uranium needed to run Brazil's two nuclear power plants.

At the inauguration ceremony Brazilian Science and Technology Minister Sergio Rezende told the
assembled officials and media of Brazil's commitment to the peaceful use of nuclear power.

In April 2004 the Brazilian government denied access for the IAEA inspectors to the Resende
facility and refused to let IAEA inspectors see equipment in the plant. Citing a need to protect
proprietary information the government had built walls around parts of the facility and draped
covers over equipment.

By November 2004, the IAEA was able to reach an agreement in principle with the Brazilian
government on a safeguards approach to verify the enrichment facilities in Brazil, at the
Resende facility. This approach is 'claimed' to enables the IAEA to do inspections but at the
same time addresses Brazil's need to shield proprietary designs inside the facility.

Built at a cost of $172 million, the plant will be capable of enriching natural uranium to
less than five percent uranium-235, an isotope needed to fuel power reactors. In order to make a
bomb, natural uranium must be enriched to 95% uranium-235.

Carlos Freire Moreira, a director at Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil, said the Resende factory
will be overseen by the Brazil-Argentina Nuclear Energy Application Agency.

The technology for INB's Resende factory was developed by the Brazilian Navy with support from
the National Institute of Nuclear Research.

The new facility is intended to make Brazil independent of enriched uranium imports that now
cost the country $16 million annually. To date, Brazilian uranium has been transported to Canada
for conversion into hexafluoride gas, and then to the United Kingdom for enrichment before it
returns to Brazil for fabrication into fuel elements.

In the first phase of operations, running from now until 2012, the factory will supply some
60% of the enriched uranium needed by the country's two nuclear power plants, Angra 1 and 2.

Around 2015, the factory is expected to be supplying 100% of Brazil's enriched uranium.

Minister Rezende said in March that Brazil has a plan to build seven nuclear plants over the
next 15 years, two of them in the country's poorest region, the Northeast.

Rezende made the announcement in a March 7 interview with BBC Brazil, while he was in London
with President Lula da Silva on a state visit.

Luís Hiroshi Sakamoto, the director of planning, management and environment at Eletronuclear,
the company that operates the Angra 1 and 2 nuclear power plants, says that Brazil will need
another nuclear power plant to meet demand for electricity in the near future.

Sakamoto told the Agencia Brasil government news agency in January that it will take $1.8
billion and five years to complete the partly finished Angra 3, located next to the Angra 1 and
2 reactors.

Angra 3 was scheduled to be operating in 1988, but it was never completed although $750
million has been spent on it.

All three of Brazil's nuclear power plants are sited closely together at a beach resort, Angra
dos Reis, on the coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro, 150 kilometers from the city of Rio de
Janeiro. The uranium enrichment facility at Resende is located about 65 kilometers to the north.

Greenpeace calls Brazil's new uranium enrichment factory in Resende a step backwards.
Guilherme Leonardi, the coordinator for nuclear energy at Greenpeace, says Brazil is investing
in a technology that many countries are abandoning.

Leonardi disagrees with experts who say that nuclear energy is clean.

"Inevitably nuclear energy produces nuclear waste. And when you are dealing with nuclear
energy there is always a risk of an accident at various points in the nuclear fuel cycle - in
the processing of nuclear fuel, the generation of energy or in disposing of the nuclear waste",
he says.

Leonardi goes on to say that many countries are rethinking the nuclear energy alternative.
They are deciding against new nuclear power plants, which is what Greenpeace says Brazil should
do.

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.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2006/2006-05-08-04.asp

==========
Pravda
May 6, 2006

Brazil inaugurates uranium enrichment center, joins nuclear elite

Sao Paulo -- Brazil has inaugurated a uranium enrichment center, capable of producing the kind
of nuclear fuel that Iran wants to make but western colonialists pressure it not to.

A new centrifuge facility was formally opened on Friday at the Resende nuclear plant in the
state of Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian government says its technology is some of the most
advanced in the world.

The government says that within a decade the country will be able to meet all its nuclear
energy needs.

Science and Technology Minister Sergio Rezende told the Agencia Brasil government news agency
Saturday the enrichment center would save Brazil millions of dollars (euros) it now spends to
enrich fuel at URENCO, the European enrichment consortium.

Brazilian scientists insist their technology is superior to that of existing nuclear powers.
They claim the type of centrifuge in use at Resende will be 25 times more efficient than
facilities in France or the United States.

Rezende stressed Brazil's commitment to the peaceful use of nuclear energy at a ceremony
Friday at the plant, built on a former coffee plantation in Resende, 150 kilometers west of Rio
de Janeiro.

The enriched uranium will fuel Brazil's Angra 1 and Angra 2 nuclear plants near Rio de
Janeiro, Rezende said. Angra 3 is still under construction, and the government expects it to
come online in 2013.

The government-run nuclear company Industrias Nucleares do Brasil SA says the plant will be
capable of enriching natural uranium to less than 5% uranium-235, an isotope needed to fuel its
reactors. Nuclear warheads need ore that has been enriched to 95% uranium-235.

The government raised eyebrows in 2004 when it refused unrestricted inspections by the
International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), arguing that providing full access to its
state-of-the-art centrifuges would put it at risk of industrial espionage.

But inspectors said they were satisfied after monitoring the uranium that comes in and out of
the centrifuges, which were covered with opaque screens.

Brazil's nuclear program began during a 1964-1985 military dictatorship, and the ruling
generals had secret plans to test an atomic bomb underground in the Amazon jungle.

That idea was scrapped in 1990, and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell declared in
2004 that "we know for sure that Brazil is not thinking about nuclear weapons in any sense".

Brazil has the world's sixth-largest uranium reserves, but has been unable to use the fuel for
energy without shipping it to and from URENCO, reports AP.
http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/07-05-2006/80006-uranium-0

====================
Associated Press (AP)
May 6, 2006

Like Iran, Brazil unveils uranium enrichment facility

By Peter Muello

Rio de Janeiro -- Brazil has inaugurated a uranium enrichment center capable of producing
nuclear fuel for the South American country's power plants.

Brazil's enrichment center will save millions of dollars the country now spends to enrich fuel
at URENCO, the European enrichment consortium, Science and Technology Minister Sergio Rezende
told the government news agency Agencia Brasil Saturday.

Iran is seeking to produce the same fuel, but is facing western colonialists' harassment
against doing so.

Brazil has the world's sixth-largest uranium reserves, but has been unable to use the fuel for
energy without shipping it to and from URENCO.

In 2004, the Brazilian government drew attention when it refused unrestricted inspections by
the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), arguing that full access to its centrifuges
would put it at risk of industrial espionage.

IAEA inspectors said they were 'satisfied 'after monitoring the uranium that comes in and out
of the centrifuges.

Brazil's nuclear program began during a 1964-1985 military dictatorship, and the ruling
generals had secret plans to test an atomic bomb underground in the Amazon jungle.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1932697

==================
Associated Press (AP)
April 23, 2006

Brazil follows same nuclear path as Iran

By Peter Muello

Resende, Brazil -- As Iran faces Western pressure over developing the raw material for nuclear
weapons, Brazil is quietly preparing to open its own uranium-enrichment center, capable of
producing exactly the same fuel.

Brazil, like Iran, has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), and Brazil's
Constitution bans the military use of nuclear energy.

Also like Iran, Brazil has cloaked key aspects of its nuclear technology in secrecy while
insisting the program is for peaceful purposes, claims that nuclear weapons experts have
debunked.

Some worry its new enrichment capability -- which eventually will create more fuel than is
needed for its two nuclear plants -- suggests that South America's biggest nation may be
rethinking its commitment to nonproliferation.

"Brazil is following a path very similar to Iran, but Iran is getting all the attention", said
Marshall Eakin, a Brazil expert at Vanderbilt University. "In effect, Brazil is benefitting from
Iran's problems".

Suspicions raised

The U.S. Embassy in the capital, Brasilia, referred all questions to the State Department in
Washington, where spokesman Sean McCormack dismissed any parallel between Brazil's nuclear
program and Iran's.

"My understanding is they have a peaceful nuclear program", he said last week.

Still, Brazil's enrichment program -- and its reluctance to allow unlimited inspections -- has
raised suspicions abroad.

"Brazil is beginning to be perceived as a country apparently wanting to re-evaluate its
commitment to nonproliferation, and this is a big part of the problem", said Jon Wolfsthal,
deputy director for nonproliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in
Washington.

The government-run Industrias Nucleares do Brasil S.A. has been conducting final tests at the
enrichment plant, built on a former coffee plantation in Resende, 90 miles west of Rio de
Janeiro. When it opens this year, Brazil will join the world's nuclear elite.

Brazil has the world's sixth-largest uranium reserves, but until the plant becomes
operational, it can't use the fuel for energy without shipping it to and from URENCO, a European
enrichment consortium.

Expert says it's possible

Brazil says its plant will be capable of enriching natural uranium to less than 5%
uranium-235, an isotope needed to fuel its two reactors. Warheads need ore that has been
enriched to 95% uranium-235, a material Brazil 'says' it won't produce!

"If you can enrich to 5%, you're decades away from enriching to 90%", said Odair Dias
Goncalves, president of the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission. "You need a whole new
technology that we don't have''.

But former UN inspector David Albright said he worked with Goncalves at the Brazilian Physics
Society on a project to show that the Brazilian centrifuges could be used to produce highly
enriched uranium, even if that wasn't their intended use.

"Centrifuges are very flexible", he said. "Reconfiguring the cascades or recycling the
enriched uranium multiple times can allow for the production of weapons-grade uranium".

Brazilian leaders insist the fuel will be used for the nation's $1 billion nuclear energy
industry. Already Latin America's biggest nuclear power provider, Brazil plans up to seven new
atomic plants to reduce its dependence on oil and hydroelectric power and plans to export
enriched uranium to provide energy for other countries.

Brazil had great nuclear ambitions during a 1964-1985 military dictatorship, when it built the
two nuclear energy plants, worked to develop a nuclear submarine and had secret plans to test an
atomic bomb in a 1000-foot-deep, concrete-and steel-lined hole in the Amazon jungle. That idea
was formally scrapped in 1990, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell declared in 2004 that
''we know for sure that Brazil is not thinking about nuclear weapons in any sense''.

But Brazil's nuclear ambitions have been rekindled under leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva, in part, analysts say, because joining the nuclear club would boost Brazil's status
internationally and possibly earn it a permanent seat on the UN Security Council (UNSC).

What is really at stake in both Brazil and Iran is self-image, Brazilian physicist Jose
Goldemberg said. "It's nationalism, pride. That's the real reason", he said.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-brazil23.html

=======================
Knight Ridder Newspapers
February 10, 2006

Brazil poised to join the world's nuclear elite

By Jack Chang

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - While the world community scrutinizes Iran's nuclear plans, Latin
America's biggest country is weeks away from taking a controversial step and firing up the
region's first major uranium enrichment plant.

That move will make Brazil the ninth country to produce large amounts of enriched uranium,
which can be used to generate nuclear energy and, when highly enriched, to make nuclear weapons.

Brazilians, who have long nurtured hopes of becoming a world superpower, are reacting with
pride to the new nuclear fuel factory (Fábrica de Combustível Nuclear or FCN) in Resende
(http://www.inb.gov.br/english/resende.asp), about 110 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro.

Other countries enriching uranium on an industrial scale are the United States, the United
Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, China and Japan.

The plant initially will produce 60% of the nuclear fuel used by the country's two nuclear
reactors. A third reactor is in the planning stages. The government hopes to increase production
eventually to meet all of the reactors' needs and still have enough to export, Brazilian
officials said.

"We want to build new power plants and grow our enrichment program to be self-sufficient",
said Odair Dias Goncalves (http://www.cnen.gov.br/enir2005/imagens/odair.jpg), the president of
Brazil's National Nuclear Energy Commission (Comissão Nacional de Energia Nuclear or CNEN
(http://www.cnen.gov.br/siteingles/ingles.asp). "In the whole world, there's a big reinvestment
in this area. Countries are turning back to nuclear energy".

The Resende nuclear fuel factory's inauguration had been set for January 20, but was delayed
because construction wasn't completed, Odair Dias Goncalves (odair[AT]cnen.gov.br) said. The
plant may begin uranium enrichment without the hoopla later this month, officials said.

Unlike Iran, Brazil is considered a "good" global citizen that isn't seeking nuclear weapons,
although its military ran a secret program to develop a nuclear weapon as recently as the early
1990s.

Still, some U.S. observers fear Brazil's program will encourage more countries to make nuclear
fuel, raising the danger of nuclear weapons proliferation.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), earlier
this month reported Iran to the UN Security Council for "allegedly" failing for three years to
disclose all aspects of its nuclear program to agency inspectors.

Iran responded by restricting IAEA inspections, a move that stymies efforts to determine
whether it's producing fuel for power plants or developing nuclear weapons.

Brazil's nuclear fuel needs, more than 120 tons of enriched uranium a year, don't warrant the
country launching an industrial facility like Resende, especially with global supplies of the
material running high, said Lawrence Scheinman (http://cns.miis.edu/cns/staff/lscheinm.htm), a
former U.S. arms control official.

"There really isn't much justification for new enrichment facilities unless countries have a
very substantial number of reactors to be serviced and don't want to depend on outside
suppliers", Lawrence Scheinman said (http://www.nci.org/conference.htm). "Neither Brazil nor
Iran are in those positions".

Despite the criticisms, Brazil's program hasn't drawn the outcry that Iran's nuclear plans
have. Disagreements between the IAEA and Brazilian officials in 2004 over access to the Resende
facility were resolved within months.

"There is no way to doubt the intent of our plans because they are completely open", Odair
Dias Goncalves said. "We have to take account of every gram of uranium used".

The road to Resende did hit a few bumps in 2004 when Brazil refused to let inspectors view
centrifuges used in the enrichment process, saying they had to protect Brazilian-designed
innovations vulnerable to industrial espionage.

After months of negotiations, the two sides agreed to a confidential inspection regime, which
is still in place, an IAEA official said.

That agreement allows IAEA inspectors to examine material coming in and out of the centrifuges
but not the equipment itself, which is covered by opaque panels, said Edson Kuramoto
(http://www.setorialnews.com.br/fotos/kuramoto.jpg), president of the non-governmental Brazilian
Nuclear Energy Association (Associação Brasileira de Energia Nuclear or ABEN).

Brazilian energy adviser and physicist Professor Emeritus Rogerio Cezar de Cerqueira Leite, 75
(http://tinyurl.com/azgbx) said the Resende plant will allow Brazil to sell to growing markets
for enriched uranium and fuel a domestic nuclear program that's bound to expand.

"Without enriched uranium, you don't have nuclear technology", Prof. Rogerio Cezar de
Cerqueira Leite said. "It's not just national prestige. If you don't make it yourself, you will
always be behind in the nuclear race".

Many Brazilians see the eventual opening of Resende as the first step in the country becoming
a world leader in nuclear research, said Prof. Rogerio Cezar de Cerqueira Leite.

Brazil has the world's sixth largest deposit of uranium.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/13842944.htm


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