Luthianna Hollenbach
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - The coordinator of the Greenpeace Energy Campaign, Sérgio Dialetachi, reveals that a survey conducted by Greenpeace in the major Brazilian capitals and based on 2,300 interviews showed that 82% of the population does not want another nuclear plant to be built in Brazil. The National Council on Energy Policy is scheduled to meet tomorrow (13) to discuss the construction of the Angra 3 Nuclear Plant.

"We are applying pressure so that 82% of the Brazilian population is heard at the meeting that will decide this on Wednesday." According to the coordinator, Brazil possesses two nuclear power stations that cost US$ 20 billion to build. "They generate no more than 2% of all the country's electricity, and, at this very moment, the two plants are shut down for technical reasons. Nuclear power stations are unsafe, as was shown by the accident at Chernobyl, in Russia, in 1986, as well as other accidents around the world."

Dialetachi says that Brazil's nuclear program has already cost US$ 40 billion, in a country that needs, first of all, to end the hunger of its population. He insists that nuclear power stations are obsolete and that various of the world's developed countries are in the process of deactivating their nuclear plants for two reasons: "Nuclear plants are dirty, from two standpoints: They produce atomic wastes, which take thousands of years to decompose, and they conceal many secrets. There's always the hand of someone who wants to build a bomb in the wings," he explains.

According to Dialetachi, pressure is being exerted by some institutions that favor building the plant: "the military, construction firms, and employees of Eletronuclear (the holding company in the nuclear energy sector)."

Translation: David Silberstein