Brazil Puts Nuclear Sub In Plans

[Jack Ray]

FYI

Brazil Puts Nuclear Sub In PlansBy Alan Clendenning, Associated Press
Chicago Tribune
November 17, 2007

SAO PAULO, Brazil - This month's discovery of a huge offshore oil reserve justifies Brazil's plan to build a nuclear submarine because it would be used to protect the find, the defense minister said.

"When you have a large natural source of wealth discovered in the Atlantic, it's obvious you need the means to protect it," Nelson Jobim said Thursday at a defense conference in Rio de Janeiro.

Jobim said Brazil must safeguard the Tupi field and its 5 billion to 8 billion barrels of oil reserves from other nations and from "actions that could come from the area of terror," the government's Agencia Brasil news service reported.

Brazil has been talking about building a nuclear submarine for decades, but the project got a boost in July when President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced $540 million in funding for uranium enrichment and the sub program.

Jobim said earlier this month that he wants to come up with an outline within three months to build a nuclear-powered submarine for about $1.2 billion, the Agencia Estado news service reported.

Brazil has no regional enemies and has not experienced terrorist attacks.

The Brazilian navy's nuclear program, begun in 1979, has already mastered part of the uranium enrichment process. But it lags in developing and constructing a submarine reactor entirely from Brazilian technology.

[Guest]

Which foreign adversary did Brazil have in mind when she proclaimed the need to use nuclear submarines to protect her oil field?

I think it is safe to say any nation whose naval power that can reach Brazil can also beat the snot out of 1-2 Brazilian nuclear submarines.

[Werner]

I think there is no love lost between Lula and Chavez....

[Jimmy Conway]

Read more at........

http://blog.naval.com.br/2008/02/18/min ... ty-brasil/

[Jimmy Conway]

Brazilian Navy plans nuclear fleet..................

Read more at: http://blog.naval.com.br/2007/12/17/mar ... a-nuclear/

[winstonshu]

I think there is no love lost between Lula and Chavez....

to be fair, there's very little love lost between chavez and most sane national/international leaders.

[Francisco P. de Nanclares]

I think there is no love lost between Lula and Chavez....

to be fair, there's very little love lost between chavez and most sane national/international leaders.

Yep. Even Zapatero has stepped back!.

[Gone Asiatic]

They`d spend wiser getting several diesel boats for the price of developing and building 1 nuc.

[Werner]

Right now Brazil has a trivial oil supply. For the interval before their new fields come on line, nuclear power actually makes sense.

I think a lot of the reason countries start developing nuclear power is because it is a technological stretch, a "moon shot" if you will, for their industry.

Like Japan, which has disavowed nuclear arms, it still leaves open a change of mind. China wakes up every morning knowing Japan is at most 45 days from being able to deliver a nuclear weapon. We are beginning to see that kind of ambiguity in Iran.

[Jimmy Conway]

Many reasons were given for the nuke plans, but government is thinking very late about LONG DISTANCES in the brazilian litoral to patrol but with the "hidden" benefits and so the nuke facilities of subs could provide long time at sea, not as do some SSK. The programed sub would use only convencional torpedos and never nuke missiles. I think it is very reasonable.