(March 18, 1994) The end of the NUCLEI consortium. According to the "Gazeta Mercantil" of 2 Sept. 1993, NUCLEI, a consortium between Industrias Nucleares do Brasil (INB, owning 75% of the shares), and the German corporations Siemens/KWU and Steag (together holding 25%) has been dissolved after three years of negotiations.
(408.4044) WISE Amsterdam - NUCLEI was originally created to enrich uranium for the Brazilian nuclear program, but until now only a demonstration plant near Resende (RJ) had been build at the cost of US$ 550 million, while INB estimated an additional investment of US$ 35 million just to complete the first phase of the project. So far nothing has been decided yet about what to do with the equipment at the plant.
The dissolution was in part due to the fact that the process of enrichment by ultracentrifuge developed recently by the Brazilian Navy proved much cheaper than the Becker Jet Nozzle Technique devised by NUCLEI, mainly because of lower energy consumption. Transfer of ultracentrifuge technology had been denied by URENCO (A British-Dutch-German consortium) at the time when NUCLEI was created and for this reason Brazil and Germany decided for the latter system.
The newspaper "Gazeta Mercantil" cited Cristian Close, manager of KWU in Brazil, declaring that the dissolution of NUCLEI will not affect the Nu-clear Treaty signed in 1975 between both countries since the Germans are also involved in other areas of the Brazilian nuclear program, for instance owning 25% of the NUCLEN Utilities Company (with ELETRO-BRAS as majority partner) and having several contracts placed through INB at the Fabrica de Elementos Combustiveis (FEC). The Germans are also taking part in the construction of the Angra II power plant and Mr. Close reassured that US$ 700 million of the US$ 1.500 million necessary to complete Angra II will be financed by them, although there are some doubts whether the Brazilian government is willing to continue this project. According to Francisco Baker, spokes-man to the presidency, "no decision has been made yet concerning Angra II", but it is publicly known that president Itamar Franco has been consequently against the use of nuclear energy ever since his mandate as a senator.
In Februari Germany announced again that it will continue the cooperation with Brazil on nuclear power after Brazil ratified the safeguarding agreement by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Meanwhile, the "Jornal do Brazil" announced in its edition of 20 Oct. 1993 that two other state-owned companies related to the production of nuclear energy, NUCLEP and NUCLEMON, will soon be put to public auction according to the privatization program of the government. The former produces machineries and components for nuclear power plants while the latter exploits and processes monazidic sands.
Sources:
- Wamani: nuclear@wamani.dpc.org
- Die Tages-zeitung (FRG), 14 Febr. 1994
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