RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The information came from state-owned Nuclear Industries of Brazil (INB) linked to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, which has a monopoly on the production and sale of nuclear materials in the country.
The electric sector is in crisis due to the low water levels in hydroelectric plant reservoirs, the worst in the past 91 years. This has led to increased spending on the more expensive thermoelectric plants.
The government has opened the licensing process for the new ultracentrifuge cascade, the facility used to enrich the material. This will be the 9th such facility at the Nuclear Fuel Factory (FCN), located in Resende, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The enriched material at FCN feeds the Angra 1 and 2 plants, the only two in Brazil’s nuclear park.
Brazil’s production of enriched uranium meets 60% of the Angra 1 nuclear plant’s annual demand, and the remainder is imported from Europe. The plant in Resende is expected to be able to meet 70% of the plant’s needs by 2023, when the 10th uranium enrichment cascade is due to be inaugurated.
Demand for the metal will increase with the expected conclusion of Angra 3’s work, suspended since 2015 when the country exhausted the second deposit from which it extracted the metal. The resumption of the first phase of works, with the construction of the reactor building, has been approved in a public notice and awaits endorsement from Eletrobras to be started. The construction began in 1984 and the most recent forecast is that it will be completed in 2026.
“When the Enrichment Plant implementation is finalized, Brazil will become self-sufficient in the production of the material. The forecast is that by 2033 INB will be able to meet the demand of Angra 1 and 2 nuclear power plants, with fully national production, and the demand of Angra 3 by 2037,” INB said in a statement.
EXPLORATION RESUMED
Uranium exploration was resumed in December 2020, at the Engenho Mine in Caetité, in the southwest of the state of Bahia, where a new mine was discovered. The country is part of a select group of 12 nations recognized by the international community for mastering the fuel cycle.
According to the World Nuclear Association, Brazil has the world’s 7th largest uranium reserve and accounts for 5% of the planet’s supply of the metal. Participation and classification that, according to specialists, may improve because 30% of the national territory may contain the material, according to a mapping conducted by the National Center for Mineral Research (CNPM). This would provide the country with the potential to jump to the top positions in the ranking.
Brazil currently needs an estimated 47.5 million tons of enriched uranium per year to supply the two plants. The intensity of uranium enrichment for use in Angra stands at 4.25%. The gas is transformed into uranium dioxide powder and, with it, pellets are made, which are transformed into nuclear fuel and sent for use.
Professor of the Nuclear Engineering course at UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) and former president of Eletrobras Luiz Pinguelli Rosa says that national production is low, but that demand has also been modest.
“We produce little uranium here, but the truth is that, with two reactors, demand is also very low. We may have a third with the inauguration of Angra 3, and a fourth, with the nuclear propulsion submarine project that is under development by the Navy,” he explains. “The inauguration of new cascades is positive because it places Brazil on the path to self-sufficiency, with the resumption of exploration in Caetité,” he adds.
The required level of uranium enrichment for the submarine vessel is higher than for the plant reactors, but well below the level needed to develop nuclear weapons, which is forbidden by the constitution and by international conventions and agreements, such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), of which Brazil is a signatory, along with 188 other nations.
“The nuclear propulsion submarine needs approximately 20% enriched uranium. Much more than what is needed to transform it into fuel, but very far from what would be needed for nuclear weapons, which would require something in the range of 90%,” the professor adds.
GRADUAL INCREASE IN NATIONAL PRODUCTION
Nuclear energy is one of the government’s strategies to reduce its dependence on hydroelectric plants. Currently, the Angra dos Reis nuclear park has 1,990 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity, which corresponds to 1.1% of Brazil’s energy production. This may not sound like much, but it is equivalent to 30% of supply for the entire state of Rio de Janeiro.
Once Angra 3 is completed, this production will reach 3,395 MW, enough to meet 50% of the state’s entire energy demand. To this end, the annual demand for uranium enriched to 4.25% will increase from the present 47.5 to 76 tons, according to INB’s most recent projections.
However, demand may well be higher in the coming decades. The 2050 National Energy Plan, released last December, foresees that the installed capacity of Brazil’s nuclear park will reach 10 GW. This means a fivefold increase in current supply, from new plants in the Southeast and Northeast.
FCN was inaugurated in 2004 and began enriching uranium on a commercial scale in 2005. Since then, the country has increased production at Resende, with successive inaugurations of ultracentrifuge cascades, which have gained momentum recently. The inauguration of the 7th occurred in 2018, and the 8th went into operation in 2019.
Brazil’s ultracentrifuges are produced by the Navy Technology Center in São Paulo. President of the Brazilian Association for the Development of Nuclear Activities (ABDAN) Celso Cunha perceives the expansion of Brazilian uranium production as natural and sees it as a strategic element for the sector and for the country.
“Brazil is one of the few countries that dominate the fuel cycle and, of this club, is one of the rare ones with relevant uranium reserves. Our ultracentrifuges are a state secret and are among the best on the planet,” Cunha stresses. “If we have enriched uranium, expanding the plant to enrich more is a natural path,” he says.
ELETRONUCLEAR’S FUTURE
The government is trying to privatize Eletrobras and its subsidiaries, but the measure will not affect Brazil’s nuclear program, which constitutionally can only be run by the state. The assets of Eletronuclear and of Binational Itaipu will be undertaken by a new state-owned company: the Brazilian Company of Participations in Nuclear and Binational Energy (ENBpar).
The new company would be based in Brasilia, according to the provisions of the decree that created it, but a coalition led by Senator Carlos Portinho secured a pledge by the Ministry of Mines and Energy that the agency will have its administrative headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, where Brazil’s nuclear operations are concentrated.
“In a meeting, Minister Bento Albuquerque showed us the ENBpar statute. In its second article it provides for the headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, and this is a victory. He said he was sensitive to our plea and was considering the possibility of rewriting the statute, but this is his initiative. Being in the statute is part of this victory. We will wait for the changes in the decree, to see if he will rewrite it, or if he will agree with the statute,” Portinho says.
In May, the federal government announced the creation of the National Nuclear Safety Authority (ANSN), the result of the division of the National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN) into two bodies. The authority will be based in Rio de Janeiro and the law that creates it was sanctioned on October 18 this year by President Jair Bolsonaro. The law was published in the Federal Gazette.
Source: CNN Brasil