Brazilian Navy Nuclear Program

The Brazilian Navy Nuclear Program (Portuguese: Programa Nuclear da Marinha; PNM) is the Brazilian navy's initiative to master the nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear propulsion to be used in a Brazilian nuclear-powered submarine. The PNM is distinct from, but directly necessary to, the Submarine Development Program (ProSub), which will build the submarine itself. It is carried out by the Navy Technological Center in São Paulo (CTMSP), which operates a headquarters unit on the University of São Paulo campus and the Aramar Nuclear Industrial Center, in Iperó, São Paulo.

Founded in 1979 under the codename "Chalana Program", it was originally part of the "Parallel Nuclear Program" of the Brazilian military dictatorship, which was dissatisfied with the technology transfer it had been offered by developed countries. Civilian institutions and the country's three Armed Forces branches had their own projects, but only the navy succeeded in the long term. Under the initial leadership of naval engineer Othon Luiz Pinheiro da Silva, ultracentrifuges were obtained to enrich the first milligrams of uranium in 1982. The project was subsidized through secret accounts and enveloped in both Brazilian and foreign espionage.

The program was made public after the return to democracy and maintained with varying degrees of support from the federal government. Politically, it is associated with agendas of technological autonomy, security, and international projection. In 1988, the PNM completed a research reactor and inaugurated the Aramar complex, despite an intense local anti-nuclear movement. The program was tarnished by association with the dictatorship and fears of a nuclear accident. In the 1990s, the government lost interest, the navy's budget took over all expenses, and the program dropped in priority and stagnated. A notable development in those years was a contract to supply ultracentrifuges to the Resende Nuclear Fuel Factory, meeting part of the fuel demand of the Angra Nuclear power plants. The dual (civilian and military) use of the technology helps explain the survival of the PNM.

The creation of ProSub in 2008 brought a solid promise for the construction of the nuclear submarine, renewed federal support for the PNM, and the institutionalization of its goals in the National Defense Strategy and other official documents. The nuclear fuel cycle has already been mastered, and the land-based prototype of the submarine's nuclear plant, called the Nuclear Power Generation Laboratory (Labgene), is under construction. The issue of international safeguards remains unresolved: Brazil has the technical capacity to enrich fissile material potentially usable in nuclear weapons, but ratified the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1998. However, it has not signed the IAEA Additional Protocol, which would grant more access to international inspections. The Brazilian government claims to be protecting sensitive information, and no agreement has yet been reached regarding the future fuel stockpiles of the nuclear submarine.