Iraq-alypse Now?

Brazil, U.N. Near Uranium Inspection Deal

Right-wing hatred of the United Nations, along with pressure from the Project for a New American Century, promise to make South America the middle-east of the next decade.

Wed Nov 3, 5:35 PM ET

By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer

VIENNA, Austria - The U.N. atomic watchdog agency has tentatively agreed to a deal with Brazil that allows inspectors only a partial view of sensitive fuel enrichment technology but satisfies concerns that the country's nuclear programs are peaceful, diplomats said Wednesday.

Brazil has refused for months to allow U.N. inspectors to see the enriching centrifuges at its plant in Resende, 60 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro, claiming plant's advanced technology could be stolen by other countries if outsiders were allowed to view it.

The International Atomic Energy Agency wants to make sure that uranium being processed through centrifuges at Resende is neither enriched to weapons-grade levels nor diverted to other sites.

Diplomats, familiar with the dispute between Brazil and the IAEA, told The Associated Press the compromise appeared to satisfy concerns on both sides. Brazil's Science and Technolgy Ministry said Wednesday it won't have any official comment until it hears directly from the agency.

Diplomats told the AP last month that agreement was near, but the agency had been waiting to speak with experts who recently returned from a tour of the plant. A Western diplomat said Wednesday that a deal was likely now that those experts had found that the plant was viable.

"The squabble was that the Brazilians didn't want the agency to have any visual access," said the diplomat, who demanded anonymity. "But the agency needed to have as much visual access as it deemed necessary to do the job" of verifying that uranium is neither enriched to weapons-grade levels nor diverted to other sites.

Uranium enriched to low levels is used for fuel to generate electricity. More highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium can be used in nuclear warheads. Brazil denies it is building such arms.
IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said the Brazilian government was "being constructive" and the inspectors' report will be analyzed before a final decision.

The tentative compromise would allow inspectors to see some parts of the centrifuges while other parts are hidden from view, another diplomat said. Computer-generated diagrams would be provided to the agency experts to flesh out what they are not allowed to see, he said.

Diplomats say the IAEA does not believe Brazil is trying to make nuclear weapons.

Still, any deal with the IAEA short of full visual inspection would do little to settle questions about whether Brazil's enrichment program is based on illicitly acquired technology.

Brazil's reluctance to let the inspectors see all of its nuclear program also has heightened concerns that it could serve as a precedent for other nations being asked to provide full access to their nuclear programs, such as Iran and possibly North Korea if it again accepted international inspections.

One of the diplomats familiar with Brazil's nuclear dossier said the nation's reluctance to fully open its centrifuge program to outside scrutiny could partially be due to fears that it would expose past illicit purchases.

Brazil ran a secret nuclear military program before giving it up in the 1980s — much of it based on secret procurement.