by emad » Tue Aug 30, 2005 10:46 am
<br><br>Associated Press in Rio de Janeiro<br>Tuesday August 30, 2005<br>The Guardian <br><br><br>A nuclear scientist said that Brazilian military officials came close to building an atomic bomb in the early 90s in defiance of a presidential order officially scrapping the programme in 1985.<br>Jose Luiz Santana, the former president of Brazil's national nuclear energy commission (CNEN), said in a televised interview that many components for an atomic bomb were manufactured in the early 90s. He said proponents of the bomb planned a test explosion in September 1990 at a military base in the remote Cachimbo mountains, in Brazil's eastern Amazon region.<br><br>Military officials even obtained a supply of enriched uranium from another country to arm it, he told Globo TV, Brazil's largest network. He refused to identify the country or name the military officials involved in the programme.<br><br>"I took office in April 1990 ... but it was only in August that CNEN managed to gain control of the container [of enriched uranium from the military]," he said.<br><br>Brazil's government said last year that it was working to enrich its own uranium.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/brazil/story/0,12462,1558873,00.html">www.guardian.co.uk/brazil...73,00.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
