The Water Origins of Brazil’s Nuclear Energy Infrastructure

Abstract

Today, Brazil relies on nuclear energy for three per cent of its energy needs while hydroelectricity accounts for over sixty per cent. However, Brazilian officials sought to aggressively incorporate nuclear energy into the country’s energy infrastructure at any cost in the second half of the twentieth century. This article examines the connections between hydroelectric and nuclear energy development between 1960 and 1985. I argue that water resources, both shortages and excess capacity, were critical to Brazil’s nuclear energy pursuits. While scholarly attention has often focused on Brazil’s diplomatic negotiations and exploitation of the country’s uranium deposits, this article shows how droughts played a pivotal role in legitimising Brazil’s nuclear aspirations in the face of extensive hydroelectric capacity. In the process, both Brazil’s nuclear power plant and enrichment plant relied heavily on Brazilian water resources, fundamentally linking these two separate electricity sources in Brazil’s diversified energy grid to this day.