Brazil looks to expand nuclear energy output

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil is planning to expand its nuclear energy output by building five more reactors to augment the two currently in operation, Energy Minister Edison Lobao said Thursday.

"Despite the recent incidents in Japan, Brazil is sticking to its policy of expanding its nuclear program," Lobao said in Rio, according to a report carried by Brazil's state news agency.

Lobao did not provide any timeline for the construction of the new reactors.

Brazil currently operates two reactors in its sole nuclear power plant located in Angra dos Reis, a coastal town south of Rio.

The facility generates around three percent of Brazil's energy production, which relies overwhelmingly on hydroelectric installations.

Economic expansion, however, is outstripping supply, resulting in occasional blackouts across regions.

Lobao noted that construction of a third reactor is underway at Angra, due for completion in 2015, "and we have plans to build four more."

He added that the others could be built in new plants elsewhere in Brazil.

Greenpeace and other environmental lobby groups, however, oppose broadening Brazil's nuclear program, arguing that there is potential for widespread ecological damage in case of an accident.

The energy minister said Brazil's reactors have a different and "trustworthy" safety system than the one used in Japan's ill-fated Fukushima plant, which was breached in its quake-tsunami disaster in March.

Brazil and Argentina are the only two South American nations possessing nuclear power plants.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011