Scientist: Brazil Nearly Built Atom Bomb

[Eugene]

Scientist: Brazil Nearly Built Atom Bomb


Tuesday August 30, 2005 8:16 AM

By MICHAEL ASTOR

Associated Press Writer

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - Brazil's military continued work on an
atomic bomb after it was ordered to scrap the program in 1985 and by
1990 had nearly finished building one, a leading nuclear scientist
said.

Jose Luiz Santana, the former president of Brazil's nuclear energy
commission, known by its Portuguese acronym CNEN, said the military
was preparing a test explosion when the program was ultimately
dismantled in August 1990.

Earlier this month, former President Jose Sarney, who led Brazil's
first civilian government after a 1964-85 military dictatorship, told
Globo TV that he scrapped a program to build an atomic bomb when he
came to power. The ruling generals were long suspected of seeking
nuclear weapons, but Sarney's comments were the first confirmation
of the secret program.

Santana, however, said the military was still working on a bomb when
former President Fernando Collor succeeded Sarney in 1990 and hoped
to conduct an underground test blast in September of that year at a
remote base in Brazil's eastern Amazon.

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5242561,00.html

[wli]

1. another case of Cheney dealing nukes on the side? n/t