Brazil’s production of nuclear energy is still small in comparison to the leading countries in this sector. This information comes from Aquilino Senra, professor of post-graduate courses in nuclear engineering at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
According to Senra, in France, for example, 78% of all the energy that is produced is derived from nuclear sources.
He also recalled that countries such as the United States in the decade of the 1950’s, France in the decade of the 1960’s, Japan and South Korea in the decade of the 1980’s, and, more recently, China induced significant transformations in their economies based on the development of their nuclear industries.
“If Brazil also desires to belong to this group of countries that succeeded in sparking their economies, it cannot neglect the development of its nuclear industry. It is both strategic and economically viable,” the UFRJ scientist affirmed.
Antônio Teixeira, a researcher at the University of São Paulo’s (USP) Institute of Energetic and Nuclear Research (Ipen), believes that Brazil should pay more attention to the development of this sector.
He observes that “nearly all the Asian countries, principally China and India, are developing quite important programs in this area. And Brazil has much to gain from this, too.”
The United States is currently the world’s biggest producer of nuclear energy, and Lithuania is the country in which production of nuclear energy accounts for the largest share (80%) of total energy production.
The revised Brazilian Nuclear Program provides for investments of US$ 13 billion through 2022 to conclude the Angra 3 nuclear plant and build two other large-scale nuclear plants and four small-scale ones.
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