Latin America can't afford to revive nuclear program

WASHINGTON — While the world was concentrating on Iran's nuclear drama, some Latin American nations were going nuclear too. Argentina and Brazil have relaunched their nuclear energy programs big time, and in Chile, despite President Michelle Bachelet's initial skepticism, officials are beginning to consider that option.

In the case of Brazil and Argentina, it's all about an old rivalry so bitter that cross-border jokes run something like this: A Brazilian tells an officer that he has run over an Argentine visitor and neglected to inform the victim's family.

"Well done, you might have caused a war if you had told them. You are a pacifist," the officer replies.

"But when I buried him, he shouted that he was alive," explains the contrite Brazilian.

"Don't worry," comes the response, "they all lie."

Brazil, which has the world's sixth-largest reserves of uranium, recently inaugurated a couple of centrifuges in its enrichment facility at Resende. This plant will feed the country's two nuclear reactors. At present, those reactors provide 4 percent of the nation's electricity, but President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's plan will significantly expand the nuclear component of the energy matrix with seven new plants to be built over the next 15 years.

Argentina also has two reactors providing 9 percent of the nation's electricity. But President Nestor Kirchner has announced a $3.5 billion program that includes a third plant, conducting feasibility studies for a fourth, and reopening a uranium enrichment facility at Pilcaniyeu that was closed after a nuclear weapons program was revealed at the end of military rule in 1983.

Both countries say their intentions are benign. Brazil's centrifuges will only enrich uranium to 3.5 percent U-235, well below the 90 percent concentration needed for weapons. However, military establishments in both countries have a history with nuclear weapons and delivery systems. In the 1970s, Brazil secretly transferred its technology to a military program known as Solimoes. The program was scrapped in 1990 under foreign pressure. In Argentina, the military developed "Condor" strategic missiles until they were decommissioned in the 1990s. Since then, both countries have signed, and complied with, nonproliferation treaties, and military leaders are no longer in power.

I call attention to this because there is no economic logic behind the relaunching of the nuclear programs. It is all about national pride and regional power politics. The energy problems could easily be solved in more economic ways and prevent future tensions.