The Risk Report
Volume 3 Number 4 (July-August 1997)

The government of Brazil recently decided to resume construction of a gas-graphite reactor, which can produce plutonium for atomic bombs. Known as the "Atlantic Project," the reactor will be built by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) of the Army Technology Center (CTEx) and will be located in an ecological reserve near Rio de Janeiro.

The Army's effort to develop a gas-graphite reactor -- similar to the Chernobyl reactor -- suffered budget cuts in the early 1990s under the Brazilian government of President Fernando Collor. However, the government of Fernando Cardoso decided to resume the project in late 1996.