Angra Nuclear Power Plant

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Angra Nuclear Power Plant is Brazil's sole nuclear power plant. It is located at the Central Nuclear Almirante Álvaro Alberto (CNAAA) on the Praia de Itaorna in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It consists of two Pressurized water reactors, Angra I, with a net output of 626 MWe, first connected to the power grid in 1982 and Angra II, with a net output of 1275 MWe, connected in 2000. A third reactor, Angra III, with a projected output of 1229 MWe, is planned, but work has been paralyzed due to environmental concerns and lack of funds.

Angra I was purchased from Westinghouse of the USA, and the purchase did not include the transfer of sensitive reactor technology. As a result, Angra II was built with German technology, as part of a comprehensive nuclear agreement between Brazil and West Germany signed by President Ernesto Geisel in 1975. The complex was designed to have three PWR units with a total outpout of circa 3000MWe, and was to be the first of 4 nuclear plants that would be built up to 1990.

However, serious problems relating to the inefficiency of the German technology, corruption and administrative incompetence, and widespread public opposition to the construction of a nuclear plant in a mangrove national park between the two largest populational centers in Brazil stifled the project and turned it into one of Brazil's biggest white elephants, consuming over 12 billion dollars in 30+ years of construction.

The complex has also been routinely plagued by malfunctions, shutdowns and spillages, the most recent of which occurred in 2001, when 150 liters of radioactive water spilled into the ocean after a rupture in one of the containment tanks. The equipment for Angra III, the last phase of the complex, was purchased in 1995 but has been in storage ever since, consuming 50 million dollars a year in maintenance costs.

Though the government of President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva has repeatedly stated its intention to build Angra III and complete the project, it is highly unlikely that this will happen before the end of the decade. The negative results of Angra have caused the shelving of all other projected nuclear plants in Brazil, (Iguape, Peruíbe and São Sebastião).

The complex is administrated by Eletronuclear, a state company with the monopoly in nuclear power generation in Brazil. The complex employs some 3000 people, and generates another 10000 indirect jobs in Rio de Janeiro State.