Brazil’s Nuclear Operator Warns of Collapse by March as Angra 3 Limbo Burns $1 Billion a Year
Eletronuclear, the state company that runs Brazil’s only nuclear plants, has set March as its financial breaking point — not because of any operational failure, but because Brasília still cannot decide what to do with Angra 3, a reactor whose construction began in 1984 and has been stalled since 2015.
The two-thirds-complete project devours roughly R$1 billion ($194 million) per year: R$800 million in debt service to BNDES and Caixa Econômica Federal, plus R$200 million to maintain 14,000 pieces of idle equipment stored in 35 warehouses. Brazil’s audit court has flagged R$2 billion in waste over the past two years. Interim president Alexandre Caporal compared the company’s slide to the meltdown at Correios, Brazil’s postal service, and warned cash reserves will last only until mid-March.
The real danger is a contractual trigger called “cross-acceleration.” If Eletronuclear defaults on any obligation, creditors could demand immediate repayment of nearly R$7 billion in Angra 3 loans — and seize Angra 2’s revenue, pledged as collateral. That would cut the income stream keeping Brazil‘s two operating reactors running and their workers paid.
Angra 3 Decision Still Deferred
The National Energy Policy Council (CNPE), an 18-minister body chaired by Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira, holds the decision. The council has discussed Angra 3 at least four times since December 2024, deferring each time. It met again this week and postponed once more. Management Minister Esther Dweck told Reuters the government expects a ruling by mid-year, noting that abandoning the project costs nearly as much as finishing it: a BNDES study put completion at R$23.9 billion versus R$22–26 billion to walk away.
Silveira supports completion. The Finance Ministry resists new fiscal commitments. The picture is further complicated by an ownership shuffle: J&F’s Âmbar Energia signed a R$535 million deal in October to buy Axia Energia’s (formerly Eletrobras) stake, but the transaction hasn’t closed, leaving Eletronuclear without an engaged private shareholder.
Caporal’s message is blunt: the company does not need a Treasury bailout today — it needs someone to make a call on a 40-year project. “Any other measure,” he said, “will just be more of the extraordinary liquidity gymnastics we’ve been doing for the past year and a half.”
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