Brazil has abjured nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, and curtailed its ballistic missile program in the early 1990s. From the 1970s to the early 1990s, however, Brazil’s nuclear program aroused concern that the country was seeking to develop nuclear weapons. The international community—and Washington in particular—raised additional concerns that technology from Brazil’s space launch vehicle program would be used for production of ballistic missiles. Brasilia is now a member of all key international nonproliferation regimes.
на русском (in Russian)
From the 1960s to the early 1990s, Brazil pursued an ambitious program of nuclear energy and technological development, which included construction of an unsafeguarded uranium enrichment facility under Navy direction. However, Brazil has since disavowed nuclear weapons, become a State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and, with Argentina, established a bilateral inspection agency to verify both countries' pledges to use atomic energy only for peaceful purposes. Brazil mines uranium, which is shipped to foreign countries for conversion and enrichment, and returned to Brazil, where it is fabricated in Resende into fuel for its two nuclear power reactors. When completed, a uranium enrichment plant under construction at Resende will allow the country to make its own low-enriched uranium fuel for its nuclear power industry. The plant initially will produce 60 percent of the nuclear fuel used by Brazil's two operational nuclear power reactors. Brazil has indicated that eventually it hopes to produce sufficient fuel for its reactors and for export. The government conducted an unveiling ceremony of the uranium enrichment plant in early May 2006, but it is unclear when the plant will become fully operational. The government of Brazil is considering the possibility of signing an Additional Protocol with the IAEA which would allow for more intrusive inspections of the country's facilities that use nuclear material.
There is no evidence that Brazil has ever developed or produced biological weapons. It ratified the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1973 and signed the Mendoza Declaration in 1991, which prohibits biological as well as chemical agents. Brazil's opposition to biological weapons is evident from reports that senior government officials oppose using biological agents even to control coca production in neighboring Colombia. Brazil does have the capacity to produce biological agents; for example, it has one of the world’s largest crops of the castor bean (which naturally produces the toxin ricin) and is proficient in advanced biological techniques such as gene sequencing. However, there is no indication that Brazil presents a biological weapons threat; it is, in fact, a staunch proponent of biological weapons nonproliferation.
There is no evidence that Brazil has ever embarked on a chemical warfare (CW) program; to the contrary, Brazil is an extremely active participant in CW nonproliferation efforts. Even before the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) came into existence, Brazil engaged in regional nonproliferation efforts. For example, in September 1991, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile signed the Mendoza Declaration, which commits signatories not to use, develop, produce, acquire, stock, or transfer—directly or indirectly—chemical or biological weapons. Brazil participated actively in the negotiations for the CWC and ratified it in March 1996, thereby becoming a charter member of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). By the end of 2000, Brazil had hosted five OPCW inspections of its chemical industry sites, as well as the first simulation of a challenge inspection of private industry.
Brazil curtailed the military potential of its space launch vehicle (SLV) program in the early 1990s and joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). Previously, however, military control over the SLV program and an ambitious export program of short-range rockets had raised concerns that Brazil might develop ballistic missiles and supply other countries with them.
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Updated September 2007 |
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