BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's new Resende nuclear plant has the potential to produce enough enriched uranium for six nuclear bombs every year, U.S. researchers said on Friday -- a claim Brazil denied.
The commentary by the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, published in Friday's issue of the journal Science, came three days after United Nations (news - web sites) experts visited the plant to resolve a dispute over nonproliferation inspections.
"At its announced capacity, Brazil's new facility located at Resende will have the potential to produce enough uranium to make five to six ... warheads per year," the article by Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project, and research associate Liz Palmer, said.
Brazil and U.N. inspectors have disagreed over access levels needed for proper inspection in the almost year-old dispute.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wants full access to Resende to ensure no uranium is diverted for weapons but Brazil will not allow complete access to the plant's centrifuges, saying it fears industrial espionage.
The United Nations and Washington have pressed Brazil to resolve the inspections impasse in order not to set an example for countries such as Iran and North Korea (news - web sites) which the United States suspects of defying the IAEA to develop bombs.
Brazil says it only wants to use its enriched uranium for energy and bans nuclear bomb research under its constitution.
With planned upgrades to the plant, that capacity would rise to between 26 and 31 warheads per year by 2010 and between 53 to 63 by 2014, the researchers said.
THEORETICAL POTENTIAL
"What I am doing is giving the theoretical potential of the plant," Milhollin told Reuters, adding that he sees no desire by Brazil to produce nuclear bombs. "They would have to reconfigure the centrifuges, but they could do it with what they got, with the existing equipment."
The Wisconsin project is a private, non-profit research organization in Washington, funded by private foundations and the U.S. government. It aims to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and operates under the auspices of the University of Wisconsin.
Asked about the article, Brazil's Science and Technology Ministry underlined its right to develop uranium enrichment technology for peaceful use.
Brazil hopes a deal on inspections can be reached within 30 days. The plant will only be free to enrich uranium after inspections begin there.
Uranium used for energy generation requires only low levels of concentration of about 3.5 percent. It needs to be enriched to 90 percent or more to give it weapons-grade capacity.
Edson Kuramoto, president of the Brazilian Association of Nuclear Energy, said the space needed for the capacity to make weapons-grade uranium would be much bigger than Resende has.
"The article was not based on any scientific calculations," he said.
The commentary expressed concern that Brazil will have "'breakout capability' -- the power to make nuclear weapons before the world can react. Such a power is what the United States and some European countries fear Iran is aiming at."
"If Brazil manages to deny full access to the U.N. watchdog, "Iran can demand the same treatment," it said.
-Thanks for info, Skyclad.
What do you think? Is Bush gonna kick our asses?
By the grace of God Almighty,
And the pressures of the marketplace
The human race have civilized itself...
...it´s a miracle.
For what would be worth making atomic bombs in Brazil? Come on. We live in peace here, but a nonsense attack from G. W. Sick Bush would not surprise me.
Yes. I'm not counting afghanistan in my counts because they attacked us and I think that everyone agrees taking out taliban was justified.
We invaded 1 country then, in 4 years. And we let them vote for their own leaders and what they want. There might be a smarter way to take over the world.
At this rate, it would take 800 years for the United States to take over the world. Just think about the bullshit you are spreading.
And no one wants to invade Brazil. They are not crazy people. So don't be paranoid.
OF COURSE we're going to go kick Brazil's ass! Even though they're not an OPEC nation, they're damn close to one. In fact, they share a border with a real important OPEC nation that just so happens to have a president that we would LOOOOOOOOVE to see dead.
Plus, Brazil has the largest economy and largest population in South America, which means that it's a great place for us to start getting a real Right-Wing hand down there. On top of that, it's got the most land in South America and is largely agricultural, and if we can control that, you know what that means: cheap food for us!! Probably cheap labor too, which is great because we North Americans hate to treat people for what they're worth.
What a great excuse this is to kill off some more of our young recruits in the Army!!
Let no man surrender so long as he is unwounded and can fight.
fifthtea_sausage wrote:Maybe you need to get your ass kicked a few times before you understand how offensive it is to call a nation of 300 million terrorists...
I am unclear as to whom that was directed towards.....
Let no man surrender so long as he is unwounded and can fight.
you guys take things too seriously...and go ahead and come kick mine if you dare!
Our Christ is in fact a nuclear open device, with laser beams coming from his open hands...you´ll face holy war!
By the grace of God Almighty,
And the pressures of the marketplace
The human race have civilized itself...
...it´s a miracle.
I'm not gonna kick MajinDiego's ass, have you seen his avatar? ? ? ? He's a friggin' Super Saiyan. No way, i'll leave those warmongering Brazilians alone....maybe their super nuclear reactor headquarters will malfunction and their five to six warheads a year will detonate and blow up their country. But then i won't get my cheap food.
Let no man surrender so long as he is unwounded and can fight.
HvyMtlClickWitch wrote:On top of that, it's got the most land in South America and is largely agricultural
I know you were joking, but i want to write just a note to you people know better my country..
Agriculture is just less than 9% of our economy, while Industry is 35% and "services/commerce" near 57%.
We had our industrialization, but the income wasnt distributed like in Europe, for example.
We are most like a very inequality pos-industrial country than like a pre-industrial country.
HvyMtlClickWitch wrote:On top of that, it's got the most land in South America and is largely agricultural
I know you were joking, but i want to write just a note to you people know better my country..
Agriculture is just less than 9% of our economy, while Industry is 35% and "services/commerce" near 57%.
We had our industrialization, but the income wasnt distributed like in Europe, for example.
We are most like a very inequality pos-industrial country than like a pre-industrial country.
...with the power to kick everyone´s asses!
By the grace of God Almighty,
And the pressures of the marketplace
The human race have civilized itself...
...it´s a miracle.
Wow dude, sorry. I had some real misinformation there. The stats i found said that brazil was over 30% agriculture. Whoops. Damn the internet.
Kick everyone's asses, eh? Well bring your super-saiyan-five-to-six-warhead a year ass over here diego, and we'll duke it out. I know Praying Mantis!!!!! HI-YAH!!!!
Let no man surrender so long as he is unwounded and can fight.
fifthtea_sausage wrote:I take it back.
HVYMTL looks like she's preparing to crack my head open with her own [avatar] and majin's neck is thicker than that of most gorillas.
*sulks away*
Fear not. We are peaceful. Well, Mr. Diego seems to be, anyway.
Let no man surrender so long as he is unwounded and can fight.
fifthtea_sausage wrote:And no one wants to invade Brazil. They are not crazy people. So don't be paranoid.
Why not ? US attacked Iraq because it supposedly had WMDs, right ? But lots of coutries do have WMDs and this is known for sure. So US could as well attack countries like Brazil, France or whatever.
No, but from what i hear there's a lot of confusion between the two. Turisas is a finnish *smite-your-enemies* band. I don't know anything about Thurizas, though. i just happen to know it exists because of what i hear about Turisas.
Heh....melee weapons. You've got me beat, I'm just a boxer. I fall to the sword any day.
Let no man surrender so long as he is unwounded and can fight.
The fact that you are saying that Iraq seemingly gave no reason for invasions is bull!
Expelling U.N. weapons inspectors was not reason?
Using WMD's on the Kurds killing thousands was not a reason?
Saddam's former attacks on Kuwait was not a reason?
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