The Technology Context – B101

Nuclear Power - Eletrobrás Termonuclear S/A – Brazil

Nuclear Power

Controlled fission of small amounts of uranium fuel can be used to generate large amounts of electricity without burning carbon-based fuel sources. The amount of fuel (mass and volume) required for nuclear power is significantly less than that required for a fossil-fueled plant. One ton of uranium produces as much energy as 17,000 tons of coal.

Nuclear power plants utilize resources of fissionable heavy-metal (uranium) which has no other major use. Using uranium in this way slows the depletion rate of fossil resources and helps preserve fossil fuel resources to meet future development needs. Further, it frees fossil resources so they can be used for other critical applications, such as feed stocks for chemical processes, personal transportation, and residential heating and cooking. Lowering the demand for fossil fuels in developed countries contributes to environmental equity by allowing developing countries to have vital energy supplies at lower cost.

Eletrobrás Termonuclear S/A – Brazil

The Eletrobrás Termonuclear S/A was established in 1997 for the purpose of operating and building thermal nuclear power plants in Brazil. It is a government-controlled company that generates approximately 3% of electric power consumed in Brazil. By the interconnected electric power system, such power reaches the main consumer centers in Brazil and corresponds, for example, to more than 50% of electric power consumption in the State of Rio de Janeiro (which has around 15,5 millions habitants). And this proportion will be considerably expanded when the third unit of the Power Station be concluded.

There are two nuclear power plants operating: Angra 1 - with a generating capacity of 657 electric megawatts, and Angra 2 – with a capacity to generate 1350 electric megawatts. The Angra 3 is being built at the moment, and it will be practically a replica of Angra 2, and it’s also planned to generate 1350 megawatts. They are located at ‘Admiral Álvaro Alberto Nuclear Power Station’, Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Angra 1
The first Brazilian nuclear power plant operates with a PWR reactor (pressurized water), which is the most used in the world today. Since 1985, when it started working, Angra 1 has been generating electric power sufficient for meeting the demand from cities with around 1 million habitants. Angra 1 was purchased from Westinghouse of the USA, and the purchase did not include the transfer of sensitive reactor technology. However, the experience accumulated in all these years of operation, allows the company to have the ability to carry out a continuous technology improvement program and incorporate the nuclear industry's most recent advances of the nuclear industry.


Angra 2
Angra 2 was built with German technology, as part of a comprehensive nuclear agreement between Brazil and West Germany. It also operates with a PWR reactor (pressurized water). Angra 2 could meet alone the consumption demand of a metropolitan region with two million habitants. It has the largest electric generator in the South Hemisphere. Angra 2 contributes to maintain the hydro power plants' reservoirs at such levels as not to compromise electricity supply to Brazil's most economically important region - the Southeast.


The nuclear power is today the way of large-scale electricity generation causing the less impact on the environment. Nuclear power plants like Angra 1 and 2 operate in very small areas, with no gas emissions to warm up the atmosphere, and all of their waste is kept in facilities under permanent monitoring. The nuclear industry was born before the Kyoto protocol, however with the same principles of respect for the planet.

Before the first nuclear power plant Brazil started in operation, in 1985, the Laboratory of Environmental Monitoring of Eletronuclear measured the levels of natural radioactivity and conducted studies about flora and fauna in the area of influence of the Nuclear Power Station. The results of these studies provide the comparison with data obtained today, in samples collected regularly from sea water, rain, soil, beach sand, algae, fish, milk and air. This work found out that the operation of the power plants in more than twenty years didn’t cause any significant impact on the environment. A team of biologists, physicists and chemists, highly specialized, executes continuous programs of environmental monitoring and sends the results to the national and international supervisory bodies.

Nuclear technology has so far lived up to high expectations in terms of safety, environmental impact and health. The many years of good experience in these respects seem to be creating a slowly growing international acceptance of nuclear power: an acceptance that can provide a basis for long-term use and development of nuclear power, at least in advanced industrialized countries. Fuel costs already make up only a very small fraction of the cost of nuclear power, which means that the overall economics are relatively immune even to substantial changes in the price of uranium. Future reactor designs will further exploit this feature, so that world uranium resources, even at low concentrations, can be used for many thousands of years. Uranium can be regarded as a long-term sustainable resource in the context of the internationally accepted definition of sustainable development, such as in the Brundtland Report. This doesn’t necessarily mean that nuclear power must become a dominant energy source in the long term. But there is a need for society today to accept nuclear power as one of many energy sources that will make it possible to continue to produce the electricity required, and to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and their climate effects. Continued sustainable global development requires a much wider use of electricity and a reduction in the use of fossil fuels. In such a world, there is room for both nuclear power and renewable energy sources.

This project is personally relevant to me because I’m from Brazil and I’m interested in the issues of my country. Also my brother-in-law works for that company in the public relations area, that’s way I picked this specific power station. Brazil is a nice country and I always try to keep myself updated to its sustainable resources and climate change issues.

I’m planning to get more information about the Brazilian nuclear power plants in some ways:
- Interviewing my brother-in-law and try to interview a engineer who works there (asking questions such as: How does the power station affect the people who live around that area? How secure the power plants are? What are the environmental advantages of a nuclear power plant on the conventional thermal power plants? Is Nuclear power a sustainable technology in Brazil?);
- Reading through all the topics on their website: http://www.eletronuclear.gov.br
Also I’m planning to study and get more knowledge about Nuclear Power and Sustainable Technology reading through these websites:
- http://www.wri.org/
- http://www.rsd.cam.ac.uk/
- http://www.wikipedia.org