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In the 1970s and 80s, during the military regime, Brazil had a secret program intended to develop nuclear weapons.〔(Brazil: Nuclear Inventory ) Reachingcriticalwill.org. Retrieved on 2010-10-06.〕〔(Brazil: Nuclear Weapons Programs ) Globalsecurity.org. Retrieved on 2010-10-06.〕〔(Brazil, IAEA Reach Inspection Agreement ) Arms Control Association. Retrieved on 2010-10-06.〕〔(Tracking Nuclear Proliferation - Brazil ) PBS NewsHour. Retrieved on 2010-10-06.〕〔(States Formerly Possessing or Pursuing Nuclear Weapons: Brazil ) The Nuclear Weapon Archive. Retrieved on 2010-10-06.〕〔(Country Profiles ) Global Security Institute. Retrieved on 2010-10-06.〕〔(Countries and issues of nuclear strategic concern: Brazil ) SIPRI. Retrieved on 2010-10-06.〕 The program was dismantled in 1990, five years after the military regime ended, and Brazil is considered free of weapons of mass destruction.〔(Life without the bomb ) BBC. Retrieved on 2010-10-06.〕 Brazil is one of several countries that have forsworn nuclear weapons under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty〔(Albright, Lampreia hail Brazil's accession to NPT ) Federation of American Scientists. Retrieved on 2010-10-06.〕 but possess the key technologies needed to produce nuclear weapons.〔〔(Brazil’s Nuclear Puzzle ) Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. Retrieved on 2010-10-06.〕〔(Brazil and the Bomb ) German Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved on 2010-10-06.〕〔(Not-Quite-Nuclear Nations ) Newsweek. Retrieved on 2010-10-06.〕 ==Nuclear program== In the 1950s, President Getúlio Vargas encouraged the development of independent national nuclear capabilities.〔 During the 1970s and 80s, Brazil and Argentina embarked on a nuclear competition.〔 Through technology transfers from West Germany, which did not require IAEA safeguards, Brazil pursued a covert nuclear weapons program known as the "Parallel Program",〔 with enrichment facilities (including small scale centrifuge enrichment plants, a limited reprocessing capability, and a missile program).〔 In 1987, President Sarney announced that Brazil had enriched uranium to 20%.〔 In 1990, President Fernando Collor de Mello symbolically closed the Cachimbo test site, in Pará, and exposed the military’s secret plan to develop a nuclear weapon.〔 Brazil's National Congress opened an investigation into the Parallel Program.〔 Congress members visited numerous facilities, including the Institute of Advanced Studies (IEAv) in São José dos Campos.〔 They also interviewed key players in the nuclear program, such as former President João Figueiredo and retired Army General Danilo Venturini, the former head of the National Security Council under Figueiredo.〔 The congressional investigation exposed secret bank accounts, code-named "Delta", which were managed by the National Nuclear Energy Commission and used for funding the program.〔 The congressional report revealed that the IEAv had designed two atomic bomb devices, one with a yield of twenty to thirty kilotons and a second with a yield of twelve kilotons.〔 The same report revealed that Brazil's military regime secretly exported eight tons of uranium to Iraq in 1981.〔〔(Congressional Report on the "Parallel Program". ) Senate of Brazil. Retrieved on 2012-03-23. .〕 In 1991, Brazil and Argentina renounced their nuclear rivalry.〔 On 13 December 1991, they signed the Quadripartite agreement, at the IAEA headquarters, creating the Brazilian–Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials and allowing fullscope IAEA safeguards of Argentine and Brazilian nuclear installations.〔 Brazil officially opened the Resende enrichment plant in May 2006.〔(BBC News: Brazil joins world's nuclear club ) BBC News. Retrieved on 2010-10-06.〕 Brazil's enrichment technology development, and the plant itself, involved substantial discussions with the IAEA and its constituent nations. The dispute came down to whether IAEA inspectors would be allowed to inspect the machines themselves. The Brazilian government did not allow the inspection of the centrifugal cascade halls, arguing that this would reveal technological secrets (probably relating to the use of a magnetic lower bearing in place of the more common mechanical bearing).〔 The Brazilian authorities stated that, as Brazil is not part of any "axis of evil", the pressure for full access to inspection - even in universities - could be construed as an attempt to pirate industrial secrets.〔(Urânio: Brasil não é contra a inspeção internacional, mas contra aumento da inspeção que pode apropriar-se da tecnologia desenvolvida pelo país ) Jornal da Ciência. Retrieved on 2010-10-06. .〕 They also claimed that their technology is better than that of the United States and France, mainly because the centrifugal axis is not mechanical, but electromagnetic. Eventually, after extensive negotiations, agreement was reached that while not directly inspecting the centrifuges, the IAEA would inspect the composition of the gas entering and leaving the centrifuge. Then U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, stated in 2004 that he was sure that Brazil had no plans to develop nuclear weapons.〔(BBC News: US sure of Brazil nuclear plans ) BBC News. Retrieved on 2010-10-06.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Brazil and weapons of mass destruction」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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