BBC (Saturday): Brazil joins world's nuclear club

[Jack Rabbit]

From the BBC Online
Dated Saturday May 6 19:45 GMT (12:45 pm PDT)

Brazil joins world's nuclear club
By Steve Kingstone
BBC News, Sao Paulo

Brazil has joined the select group of countries with the capability of enriching uranium as a means of generating energy.

A new centrifuge facility was formally opened on Friday at the Resende nuclear plant in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

The Brazilian government says its technology is some of the most advanced in the world.

The official opening follows lengthy negotiations with the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.

Read more.

So when do neoconservatives nuke Brazil?

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. As soon as they find oil in Brazil, it's Slim Pickens time.

[bahrbearian]

2. Thats Funny,, LOL

[Zynx]

12. There's actually a fair amount of oil in Brazil. Almost 15 billion barrels

All controlled by the state owned Petrobras, of which I am a shareholder.

[northofdenali]

13. Yep, the chimp riding the next wave -

couldn't resist this one, either:

[HuffleClaw]

3. be patient

hispanics will be the arabs of the future, demonized and declared terrorists. give it 10-15 years.

[brentspeak]

14. Brazilians aren't Hispanic

Their first language is Portugese.

[Wise Doubter]

20. if we last 10-15 years... eom

[Igel]

27. But you can probably get by calling them

Latinos. Latin-derived language in Latin America, and all that.

I'm not sure it applies to people from French Guyana, though it should, and certainly not to people from Belize, Guyana, or Surinam.

[enigma000]

4. Have they threatened to wipe Venezuela from the map?

Have they said the Venezuelan regime cannot continue? Has Brazil hosted a conference called "a world without Venezuelans"?  Has Brazil stated that the Venezuelan people will soon no longer exist? No? Then who cares.

[AlamoDemoc]

5. oh shuush!

[enigma000]

6. whoops, my bad. When is Desperate Housewives on?

[AlamoDemoc]

8. welcome aboad...don't have my Tv programing...when is it on?

[enigma000]

10. Sundays I think. But I'm not in the USA n/t

[AlamoDemoc]

15. that's ok...

[genieroze]

25. That's sounds like what Iran said about Israel. Scary stuff.

[CatholicEdHead]

7. So, when do we invade?

[AlamoDemoc]

9. BTW, Is Brazil an NPT member? and if they are member

why isn't Mr. ElBaradei not lurking around into to their facilities?

[Warren Stupidity]

17. They are and uranium enrichment is legal under the NPT.

Just not for muslims, well just not for oil rich muslims not subordinate to our imperial rule.

[cantstandbush]

11. Brazil has many close ties to Israel since after WWII, not to worry. The

US won't scream about this UNLESS there are drastic changes in the government in the future.

[951-Riverside]

16. Nuclear power & technology should have never existed

All it takes is one person to push the button and its over for humanity. People are dying enough over this crap why do we continue to force dependence on it?

[The Wielding Truth]

23. Yea, and if humans weren't so afraid to share this would be paradise

for everyone. Maybe someday we can put away the war toys and spend our strengths making life better.But we have to start hiring leaders who actually care about making peace.

[madrchsod]

18. bomb them!

destroy the whole country! turn it into glass! terror! terror! terror! do it now!

[Wise Doubter]

19. Do they have some of our oil under their soil too ??!!

Damn them ! Brizaqi terrorism is on the march

[Zynx]

21. Brazil has about 15 billion barrels or so.

[DrDebug]

22. Does that mean restarting Solimões as well?

Brazil's Nuclear History

Sharon Squassoni and David Fite

Over the last 60 years, political and military rivalry with Argentina colored Brazilian politics and national identity. In the nuclear arena, mastery of all applications of the atom was equated with political mastery of the Southern Cone and beyond.

In August 2005, former Brazilian President José Sarney confirmed that more than two decades ago the Brazilian military had sought to develop nuclear weapons to counter political and military competition from Argentina. More surprisingly, a former president of the Brazilian atomic energy agency recently claimed that the military allegedly continued to develop a nuclear bomb after the program had been terminated by Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello. He said the military had even obtained sufficient enriched uranium from an unspecified source, a claim vehemently denied by the current Brazilian government.<1>

Brazilian scientists began experimenting with nuclear fission in the 1930s, but efforts began in earnest after Argentina’s president, Juan Perón, made the stunning and false claim in 1951 that his country’s scientists had mastered thermonuclear fusion in the laboratory.<2> In response, Brazil created a nuclear research program under Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas (CNP), its national research council.

Two years later, a CNP agent secretly persuaded several West German scientists to manufacture several centrifuge machines clandestinely, an operation reminiscent of the Abdul Qadeer Khan nuclear black-market network. Delivery of those centrifuges was thwarted by British occupation authorities acting in concert with the United States.<3> However, some sources report that Brazil acquired three German centrifuges in the 1950s.<4>

(...)

http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2005_10/Oct-Brazil.asp#BrazilHistory

[Rex]

24. That's okay, every thing's okay, Bush is okay with the Bazillions.

It was only a few years ago that he even knew about Brazil, but Iran...knew about it because of TEXAS TEA! Besides, Brazil is in Our Back Yard so it'sokay!

[noel adamson]

26. We don't bother people who HAVE nukes...

...only people who can't fight back with anything more than home made stuff and not most of them either... China, India, Pakistan, North Korea...forget it. We will never see Bush with his cod piece in place leading the charge into China to free the masses from the communist totalitarian dictatorship or into Pakistan to "capture Osama dead or alive". Grenada, Panama, already decimated places like Afghanistan and Iraq are hard enough for these brutal chicken hawks.