RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Since the West has been waging a hybrid war against Russia, the threat of nuclear weapons has been in the air and worrying the whole world. On Tuesday (22), President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the country had not yet achieved any of its military goals with the war and pointed to its nuclear weapons should NATO countries enter its conflict with Ukraine.
When Peskov was asked in an interview with CNN under what conditions Putin would use its nuclear capabilities, the diplomat replied, “If it’s an existential threat to our country, then anything is possible.”
And this answer is probably exemplary for all atomic powers. Nuclear weapons are a deterrent, but a country will use them in the worst case.
Russia has nuclear weapons, the U.S. has them, India has them, Pakistan has them, France and the U.K. has them, North Korea has them too, and Israel has them too, it is rumored.
Like the Russians, they all will not hesitate to use them should their country face an existential threat.
Given the rapidly changing geopolitical picture, the question is: What about Brazil? Does the country have nuclear weapons that can deter attackers? Has the issue been discussed at any point in history? Here is more information on this topic.
NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND BRAZIL
Brazil does not have nuclear weapons, but if it wanted to build them, it would likely have the technological capacity and knowledge to make them, according to experts at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory.
According to the experts, heavy weapons development could be done in the country in a year, even at a small enrichment facility like Resende.
The centrifuges at INB (Indústrias Nucleares Brasileiras), established in 1988 to boost the country’s nuclear energy production, would only need to be retooled to produce highly enriched uranium for building atomic bombs.
If the Brazilian government decided to begin manufacturing weapons, it would face significant retaliation from other countries. This is because Brazil joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1988.
The document, which entered into force in 1970, aimed to limit the nuclear weapons of the United States, Russia, Britain, France, and China. It also stipulated that states could not transfer these weapons to non-nuclear states or help them acquire them.
For Lucas Carlos Lima, professor of international law at UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais), the NPT gives nuclear weapons states a privileged position. “It is no accident that it is commonly referred to as an unfair treaty. Holders are obligated not to allow proliferation. For the non-holders, the obligation not to receive and not to develop.”
The adoption of the 1988 Federal Constitution and the end of the Cold War put pressure on Brazil to join the Treaty, according to Ival de Assis Cripa, doctor of literary theory and history and professor of the extension course in Latin American history at the PUC (Pontifical Catholic University).
Therefore, on December 7, 1998, then-President Fernando Henrique Cardoso declared Brazil’s accession to the NPT.
By joining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Brazil joined the global norms and trends and committed not to acquire this type of weapon. However, it continued to have the right to research and develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes as long as the studies were supervised by IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspectors.
Civilian governments saw the accession as an opportunity to present a positive image of Brazil to the world in terms of reliability.
The ban on the production of nuclear weapons was incorporated into the Constitution at the time in two ways. Article 21: All atomic activities on the national territory are permitted only for peaceful purposes and with the approval of the National Congress.
And in paragraph 2 of the 5th article: The rights and guarantees expressed in this Constitution shall not exclude other rights and warranties arising from the regulations and principles adopted by it or from international treaties to which the Federative Republic of Brazil is a party.
“If the government tries to build nuclear weapons, it will violate the Constitution and face internal problems for not respecting the Magna Carta. And it will also suffer from external sanctions and embargoes because it signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” Assis Cripa said.
BRAZILIAN NUCLEAR PROGRAM
In the late 1930s, theoretical research on nuclear energy began at the USP (University of São Paulo). In 1947, the first atomic policy was written by Álvaro Alberto da Mota e Silva, a naval officer and enthusiast of the subject.
The norm was approved by the CSN (National Security Council) and put into action in early 1951 with the creation of the CNPq (National Research Council).
In addition to promoting scientific and technological research, the CNPq was to develop studies on relevant mineral resources and expand nuclear energy industrialization.
In the 1950s, President Getúlio Vargas proved to be a great promoter of developing national and independent nuclear capabilities. In 1956, Brazil received from the United States a research reactor that operated on 90% enriched uranium.
The equipment, part of the Atoms for Peace program, was installed at the University of São Paulo, which is under the federal government’s control.
Between the 1970s and 1980s (the period of military dictatorship), Brazil and Argentina began a nuclear competition with technology transfer from West Germany that did not require IAEA support. Brazil had parallel nuclear weapons programs conducted by the Army, Navy, and Air Force for a time.
The Navy’s program, located at the Aramar Experimental Center in Iperó-SP and intended to build a Brazilian nuclear submarine, was the most successful, achieving 20% uranium enrichment by ultracentrifugation.
The issue of nuclear armament appeared with some frequency on the Brazilian agenda. Brazil’s accession to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty progressed slowly, and decision-makers, especially in the military era, faced this choice.
There was also some tension over the possible competition with Argentina on this issue, which was resolved by an agreement establishing a joint agency. After Brazil joined the NPT, the public debate focused on other matters.
Over time, the issue of nuclear weapons was left aside. Three years before the NPT was signed, Brazil’s first nuclear power plant, Angra 1, became operational. The plant was built to produce energy, not weapons, and has a pressurized water reactor, the most widely used in the world.
Angra 1 was designed to last 40 years. The National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN) must grant Eletronuclear a new license for the unit to continue operating in 2024.
In 1991, Brazil signed an agreement for the exclusively peaceful use of nuclear energy with Argentina, showing that it was far from building atomic weapons. This action provided the impetus for creating ABACC (Brazilian-Argentine Agency for the Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials).
With the same goal as the first plant, Angra 2 was commissioned in 2000 and later developed into Angra 3. However, construction, which began 38 years ago, is not yet complete.
POLITICIANS WHO HAVE CALLED FOR NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Even after the signing of the Treaty, several authorities have already called for the construction of nuclear weapons on Brazilian soil.
In 2019, Eduardo Bolsonaro, in his capacity as chairman of the House of Representatives’ Foreign Relations Committee, advocated the development of heavy weapons.
“It is the nuclear bombs that guarantee peace in Pakistan. What would relations between Pakistan and India be like if only one of them had nuclear weapons? Would things be the same as they are today? No, of course not.”
In 2003, Roberto Amaral, then Minister of Science and Technology in the Lula government, defended the same idea of the federal deputy in the P.T.’s first year in office.
In the late 1990s, Enéas Carneiro, a politician who ran for president three times, even called for constructing a nuclear bomb to protect Brazil from potential enemies.
For Lucas, who is not only a professor at UFMG but has also acted as a lawyer in nuclear disarmament cases before the International Court of Justice, it is inevitable that in the public debate, some more extreme authorities will only present arguments defending an atomic armament of the Brazilian arsenal.
However, it is essential to distinguish the development and use of nuclear energy from the development of atomic weapons. “Energy sovereignty is different from the development of weapons that can end the lives of thousands of people in seconds,” Lima added.