RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Greenpeace activists welded shut the entrance to the headquarters of Brazil's state nuclear power company this week and chained themselves together in front of the building.
The pro-environment group said it was protesting against new investments in Brazil's nuclear program, including a government plan to enrich uranium that has caused a dispute with the United Nations over nonproliferation inspections.
The unfurled a banner outside the Brazilian Nuclear Industries (INB) in Rio de Janeiro demanding an end to Brazil's "nuclear adventure."
"We want to know if the population agrees with the proliferation of nuclear energy in Brazil," one protester said before firefighters cut the activists free and police led them away.
The uranium enrichment program has been in the headlines since Brazil refused to allow officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to fully inspect its new Resende uranium enrichment plant, northwest of Rio de Janeiro.
The IAEA wants full access to Resende to ensure no uranium is diverted for weapons but Brazil will not allow access to the plant's centrifuges, saying it fears industrial espionage.
Brazil, home to the world's sixth-largest proven reserves of uranium, says its enrichment operations will be entirely peaceful and small compared to other countries. Brazil has two nuclear reactors and is considering a third.
A Science and Technology Ministry spokesman said the government was revising Brazil's nuclear program and hoped to present recommendations to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva by the end of the year.
A commentary by the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control published in Friday's issue of the journal Science said the Resende plant had the potential to produce enough enriched uranium for six nuclear bombs every year, a claim Brazil has denied.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
