Brazil has been sending mixed signals about their own 'right to nuclear power'... though they only recently voted to have Iran reported out to the board of governors of the IAEA to 'comply with the Nuclear Non— Proliferation Treaty.'   

During his presidential campaign Brazil's president Lula da Silva created a row expressing Brazil's right to nuclear power and stating the non—proliferation treaty is unfair.  And again when his science and technology minister Roberto Amaral declared that Brazil 'wants to master all facets of nuclear technology' and 'can't renounce any form of scientific knowledge, whether genome, DNA or nuclear fission.' Later he said that did not include a nuclear weapon.

While themselves resisting IAEA inspections in early 2004, Brazil later succeeded in negotiating 'non—intrusive' IAEA inspections of their nuclear programs with the UN body....

Brazil is a signatory to The Treaty of Tlatelolco prohibiting nuclear weapons in Latin America. One large indicator of trouble would be if the Chinese start poking around their 'power programs' again. [China is Brazil's third largest trading partner.] Not a good development for the Southern Hemisphere and unfortunately a misappropriation of resources in a rich and beautiful country with large pockets of endemic poverty. 

But the question remains, is Brazil hiding something?'

Joseph Myers writes and speaks on national security issues.   2 14 06