Minister Bento Albuquerque says Brazil will have new nuclear plant

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In interviews granted in Glasgow, Scotland, where he is participating in COP26, Albuquerque said that the new projects will involve the private sector.

The schedule for expanding the Brazilian thermonuclear park is still uncertain, but a revision of the PDE (Decennial Energy Plan), for 2031, foresees the increase of the nuclear sector with auctions in the short term. The PDE is a kind of primer with indicative energy investments for a decade.

The Minister also stated that the Angra 3 project is scheduled to be completed by 2026.

The Brazilian thermonuclear park has 2 plants in operation: Angra 1 has been operating for 36 years and has 640 megawatts (MW) of power. Angra 2 was inaugurated in 2001 with 1.35 gigawatts (GW). Once completed, Angra 3 will have 1.4 GW. The energy volume produced by the two nuclear plants in operation accounts for about 2% of the national electricity matrix.

The Minister had said that energy generation from nuclear sources would reach an increase of between 8 GW and 10 GW in the next 30 years. This increase will be driven by the inclusion of the new plant in the country’s energy plans.

Over the past few years, the Minister has highlighted a number of challenges faced by the national nuclear sector, which is undergoing restructuring. Among them are the improvement of legislation, to attract private investments, including in uranium mining; the conclusion of Angra 3’s works by 2026; and the extension of Angra 1’s useful operating life for another 20 years.

Nuclear incidents, such as Fukushima, in Japan, and Chernobyl, in Ukraine, have called into question the safety of this type of energy generation operation. Countries in Europe, such as Germany, have been decommissioning their nuclear power plants in an effort to “clean up” the energy matrix.

Executives in the sector say that, in Brazil, the new plant could be used to strengthen hydroelectric plant reservoirs, mainly in times of water shortage, such as this year’s.