The Water Origins of Brazil’s Nuclear Energy Infrastructure

IF 0.8 3区 历史学 Q4 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES Environment and History Pub Date : 2023-01-01 DOI:10.3197/096734023x16869924234840
Jennifer Eaglin
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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.
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巴西核能基础设施的水源
今天,巴西依靠核能满足其能源需求的3%,而水电占60%以上。然而,巴西官员在20世纪下半叶不惜一切代价,积极地将核能纳入该国的能源基础设施。本文考察了1960年至1985年间水电和核能发展之间的联系。我认为,水资源短缺和产能过剩对巴西的核能追求至关重要。虽然学术界的注意力往往集中在巴西的外交谈判和该国铀矿的开采上,但这篇文章表明,面对广泛的水力发电能力,干旱如何在使巴西的核愿望合法化方面发挥了关键作用。在这个过程中,巴西的核电站和铀浓缩厂都严重依赖巴西的水资源,从根本上将巴西多样化的能源网络中的这两种独立的电力来源连接起来。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
1.30
自引率
0.00%
发文量
46
期刊介绍: Environment and History is an interdisciplinary journal which aims to bring scholars in the humanities and biological sciences closer together, with the deliberate intention of constructing long and well-founded perspectives on present day environmental problems. Articles appearing in Environment and History are abstracted and indexed in America: History and Life, British Humanities Index, CAB Abstracts, Environment Abstracts, Environmental Policy Abstracts, Forestry Abstracts, Geo Abstracts, Historical Abstracts, History Journals Guide, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Landscape Research Extra, Referativnyi Zhurnal, Rural Sociology Abstracts, Social Sciences in Forestry and World Agricultural Economics.
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