Sep 14 - BBC Monitoring Americas
Supported by the EU, the Brazilian Government has decided to negotiate its
full membership in the international consortium developing so-called
technology of the future in the energy area: the generation of electricity
by nuclear fusion. The objective of the participants in the International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will be to market by mid-century
the installation of power plants capable of reproducing the fusion reactions
that occur in stars such as the Sun for the production of renewable energy
that is clean and, in theory, cheap.
In its negotiation, Brazil hopes to obtain the backing of Iter's current
partners allowing it to pay all or part of its share of about 1bn dollars in
shipments of niobium, a mineral that must be used to line the reactor. The
passport for Brazil's entry will be the signing of a cooperation agreement
in the area of nuclear fusion with the European Atomic Energy Community. It
is to be signed in Brussels on 21 October. The agreement will make it
possible to exchange Brazilian and European scientists between the research
centres on both sides. Its basic role will be, however, to provide political
backing for Brazil's membership in ITER.
Odair Dias Goncalves, president of the National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN),
explained that Brazil's ambition to participate in the consortium "has never
been abandoned." At the first the government considered acting as an
observer in ITER. But in that case it would not share in the reactor
project's intellectual property rights. To install reactors in Brazil in the
future, it would have to pay heavy royalties. As a partner in the project,
it will have free access to application and development of the technology
and receive a share of the royalties.
From the CNEN's standpoint, it will be a big deal at a time when
nonrenewable energy resources will be in short supply. Brazilian
institutions have been investing in that field since the 1990's. The
Ministry of Science and Technology decided in 2006 to bring the 16 research
institutions and 80 scientists working in the field together in the National
Fusion Network under coordination of the CNEN to stimulate cooperation
within the country.
Established by the IAEA in the 1980's, ITER is preparing for the assembly in
2014 of the first thermonuclear reactor in Cadarache in southern France at a
cost of 13bn dollars. During that period the multinational agreement for
executing the project is to be signed - including a definition of the
intellectual property clauses - so that the plant can begin operating in
2016. With completion of the Cadarache experimental reactor, capable of
producing500 megawatts, the partners in the project will have a better idea
of its commercial potential. Iter's current partners are the United States,
Russia, Japan, China, India, South Korea, and the EU.
In the process of nuclear fusion, lighter atoms combine with each other to
form heavier atoms, thereby generating large quantities of energy, as
happens in the stars. So far that model has been tested only in
laboratories. The advantages of fusion are concentrated mainly in the
environmental and safety areas. In nuclear fusion, there is no emission of
greenhouse gases and no radioactive waste.
Originally published by Agencia Estado news agency, Sao Paulo, in Portuguese
1522 13 Sep 08.
(c) 2008 BBC
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