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Brazil Nearly Had Bomb in 1990, Top Scientist Says
A Brazilian nuclear scientist said his nation’s military had almost completed work on an atomic weapon by 1990 through a secret program, the Associated Press reported on Aug. 30 (see GSN, Nov. 29, 2004). The military was preparing a nuclear test before the program was dismantled in August 1990, said Jose Luiz Santana, former president of Brazil’s nuclear energy commission. Former Brazilian President Jose Sarney in August disclosed that he had eliminated a nuclear weapons program in 1985, when he came to power following a 20-year military dictatorship. Santana, however, said the military continued a clandestine program even after Sarney left office in 1990. An underground test blast was planned in the eastern Amazon before the program was terminated, he said. “I took office in April 1990 ... but it was only in August that [the Brazilian nuclear energy commission] managed to gain control of the container” of enriched uranium from the military, Santana told Globo TV. The commission denied the allegations. “There do not exist any documents in the institutional archives or information that prove the claims in the story,” the agency said in a statement. The statement also says that the International Atomic Energy Agency oversees all nuclear material in Brazil (Michael Astor, Associated Press/ABCNews.com, Aug. 30).
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