Angra Nuclear Power Plant is Brazil's only nuclear power plant. It is located at the Central Nuclear Almirante Álvaro Alberto (CNAAA) on the Itaorna Beach in

Angra dos Reis Angra dos Reis (; Portuguese for ''cove'' or ''bay of the Kings'') is a Brazilian municipality located in the southern part of the state of Rio de Janeiro. The city is located by the sea and includes in its territory many offshore islands, the l ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It consists of two

Pressurized water reactor A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water reactor, light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan and Canada). In a PWR, the primary ...

s, Angra I, with a net output of 609

MWe The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Watt ...

, first connected to the power grid in 1985 and Angra II, with a net output of 1,275 MWe, connected in 2000. Work on a third reactor, Angra III, with a projected output of 1,245 MWe, began in 1984 but was halted in 1986. Work started again on 1 June 2010 for entry into service in 2015 and later delayed into the 2020s.Power Reactor Information System
of the

IAEA The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 ...

"Brazil, Federative Republic of : Nuclear Power Reactors"
/ref> A further restart awaits outside investment.

Existing complex

The Central Nuclear Almirante Álvaro Alberto complex is administrated by Eletronuclear, a state company with the

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

in nuclear power generation in Brazil. The complex employs some 3,000 people and generates another 10,000 indirect jobs in

Rio de Janeiro state Rio de Janeiro () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil. It has the second largest economy of Brazil, with the largest being that of the state of São Paulo. The state, which has 8.2% of the Brazilian population, is responsible for 9.2% of ...

. Angra I was purchased from Westinghouse of the

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

(its sister power plant is Krško Nuclear Power Plant in Slovenia). The

balance of plant Balance of plant (BOP) is a term generally used in the context of power engineering to refer to all the supporting components and auxiliary systems of a power plant needed to deliver the energy, other than the generating unit itself. These may inclu ...

design was subcontracted to Gibbs and Hill (USA) in association with PROMON Engenharia S.A. and construction to Brasileira de Engenharia S.A. The purchase did not include the transfer of sensitive reactor technology. As a result, Angra II was built with

pre-Konvoi Several nuclear reactors in Germany and abroad are referred to as Pre-Konvoi. The term means that these units were produced and constructed before the manufacturer, Kraftwerk Union AG (KWU), switched over to a standardized design for this type o ...

German technology, as part of a comprehensive nuclear agreement between Brazil and

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

signed by President

Ernesto Geisel Ernesto Beckmann Geisel (, ; 3 August 1907 – 12 September 1996) was a Brazilian Army officer and politician, who was List of Presidents of Brazil, President of Brazil from 1974 to 1979, during the Brazilian military regime. Early life and fa ...

in 1975. The complex was designed to have three PWR units with a total output of around 3,000 MWe and was to be the first of 4 nuclear plants that would be built up to 1990.

Reactors

The plant has two operating

pressurized water reactor A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water reactor, light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan and Canada). In a PWR, the primary ...

s, with a total net capacity of . Its units are rated as follows:

Future developments

The development of Angra III began in 1984 as a Siemens/KWU

but was halted in 1986. About 70% of the plant's equipment was purchased in 1985 but has been in storage ever since. In June 2007, restarting of work on was approved by the

National Council for Energy Policy The Brazilian National Council of Energy Policy (CNPE, pt, Conselho Nacional de Política Energética) was created by the law no. 9.478/1997, also known as Petroleum Law. The council is the governmental organization of Brazil responsible for advi ...

. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva greenlit the project in July 2007. In December 2008, Eletronuclear signed an industrial cooperation agreement with

Areva Areva S.A. is a French multinational group specializing in nuclear power headquartered in Courbevoie, France. Before its 2016 corporate restructuring, Areva was majority-owned by the French state through the French Alternative Energies and Atom ...

. On 31 May 2010, the National Nuclear Energy Commission granted a licence for construction of the third reactor. Construction of the reactor, which has a capacity of 1,350 MWe, begun on 1 June 2010 and was predicted to be operational by 2018. After stopping construction in 2014, the Brazilian government have decided to auction off the incomplete power station to private investors in 2018. Based on that timetable and the volume of construction works to complete, the Energy deputy minister expected completion to be achieved by 2023. In November 2021, the Brazilian government rescheduled the conclusion of Angra III for 2026–27, and announced the construction of a fourth nuclear power plant, to be inaugurated in 2031. In February 2022, the consortium that will complete the reactor agreed a contract, which is planned to enable reactor operations to start in 2026.

References

External links

Eletronuclear Official Website

How Brazil Spun the Atom

Angra-3 PWR Nuclear
Brazil {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Rio de Janeiro (state) Nuclear power stations in Brazil Nuclear power stations using pressurized water reactors Nuclear power stations with reactors under construction 1985 establishments in Brazil Angra dos Reis

Existing complex

Reactors

Future developments

See also

References

External links