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Experts Say Brazil’s Resistance to Nuclear Inspections Raises Suspicions
Brazil’s resistance to nuclear inspections since it began observing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1997 has raised concern among experts that the country could export nuclear technology, allowing it to get into the hands of rogue states or terrorists, the New York Times reported Saturday (see GSN, Oct. 25). Experts have said they worry about Brazil’s export controls, according to the Times, citing as an example its clandestine shipments of uranium and technical assistance to Iraq in the 1980s. They have also said that the secrecy surrounding the Resende uranium enrichment facility outside Rio de Janeiro has increased suspicions about Brazil’s intentions. “I don’t see how this should be one of their major preoccupations,” said James Goodby, former U.S. chief negotiator on nuclear proliferation issues during the Clinton administration. “Don’t they at least worry what the rest of Latin America, especially the Argentines, think of this?” Brazil has always aspired to be taken seriously as a world power, however, so the government’s boldness and the nuclear program itself have been popular in Brazil, according to the Times. Past sleights by world leaders, such as former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s confusing of Brazil and Bolivia and former French President Charles de Gaulle’s dismissing the nation of some 180 million people as “not a serious country” have only add fuel to Brazil’s nuclear ambition, the Times reported. Resistance to comprehensive international inspections may also be linked to the belief of some in Brazil that an international conspiracy exists to keep Brazil from becoming a great power. Some Brazilian officials have argued that the International Atomic Energy Agency itself has conspired to deny Brazil the right to develop a valuable technology, according to the Times. “Why are the Brazilians hiding both the casing and the rotors of their centrifuges?” said Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. “Their stated reason, the idea that the IAEA can’t be trusted, is incredibly insulting and downright loopy.” Doubts have also been raised about how innovative the centrifuge process Brazil seeks to protect really is. “These claims of a need to protect industrial secrets are exaggerated, since this technology is used routinely in other applications in other parts of the world,” said Jose Goldemberg, Brazil’s minister of science and technology in the early 1990s who forced an end to the military’s secret nuclear program at the time. “National pride is involved here, but I don’t know if that is worth arousing the suspicion of the rest of the world.” (Larry Rohter, New York Times, Oct. 31).
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