The Brazilian government is divided by whether or not to complete its third nuclear power plant after 40 years of intermittent construction,Since the country’s economic team has begun to press to leave the project, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The final decision on the central, called Angra 3, corresponds to the National Council of Energy Policy (CNPE), that postponed a failure last year and will meet Tuesday to discuss the central. It is not clear if the issue will be resolved then.
The construction of the Central, located in the coastal town of Angra Dos Reis, began in the 1980s, but has been paralyzed on multiple occasions due to the lack of financing and an investigation by corruption in 2015. In 2022 an attempt to reactivate the project failed.
The debate occurs at a time when President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva intends to place the largest economy in Latin America as an ecological investment center. In recent years, several countries have reconsidered nuclear energy in response to the growing demand for climate respectful energy.
Some argue that supporting nuclear energy undermines the natural advantages of Brazil in renewable sources such as wind, solar and hydroelectric. But many experts consider that nuclear is a good alternative to thermal energy, more expensive and polluting, but to which it is usually resorted to during droughts. Both have similar costs.
“It’s a hard battle,” said a source of the economic team, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the private character of discussions. “The main argument against is the lack of financing. Who will cut your budget to make room for this?”
The Minister of Energy, Alexandre Silveira, is one of the main defenders of the project. “We have to complete it,” he said last November, qualifying Angra 3 as “mausoleum.”
The Ministries of Finance and Planning declined to comment. The Ministry of Mines and Energy did not respond to the requests for comments.
High costs
A study by the State Development Bank Bndes estimated that completing the plant would require US $ 4,000 million.
Electronuclear, the state company that supervises the project, said that five more years of construction are needed, in addition to the time necessary for the tender and mobilization of the site.
On the other hand, the BNDS estimated that the abandonment of the project would mean a cost of 21,000 million reaisincluding termination of contracts and penalties for the cancellation of subsidized financing.
