Brazil May Work With France on Nuclear Submarine (Update1)
By Jeb Blount
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil may team up with a French company to build a nuclear-powered submarine, part of plans to rearm the country's military, Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said.
France is the most likely candidate to help Brazil develop military ship-building techniques to create submarines that can be fitted with a Brazilian-designed naval nuclear reactor, Jobim told reporters at the Angra dos Reis nuclear power station outside of Rio de Janeiro.
Brazil is seeking new warships to protect its expanding offshore oil reserves, resources that have transformed Brazil from an oil importer into an oil exporter, Jobim said. State- controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA said in November its Tupi offshore field may hold as much as 8 billion barrels of oil, one of the largest finds in the last 20 years.
``France is the most-likely candidate because they are willing to transfer technology to Brazil so we can build up our own defense industry,'' the minister said. ``Defense is something you need to do on your own; if you depend on others, it can be cut off when you need it.''
The minister will discuss the submarine plan, which envisions building facilities to construct most of the submarine in Brazil, when he meets with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in January, he said.
Process
Jobim will also speak with U.S., Indian, Russian and Chinese defense contractors about military technology transfers in coming months. Brazilian companies such as Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA, or Embraer, the world's fourth-largest aircraft manufacturer, are expanding their defense-contracting businesses.
Brazil would likely build a conventional submarine first, learning the naval construction techniques needed to build underwater craft, before building ships capable of using the Brazilian Navy's home-grown nuclear reactors, and locally enriched nuclear fuel to power the craft.
Brazil, which abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 1990, has no intention of arming the submarine with anything but conventional weapons, the minister said.
Most of Brazilian Navy is more than 25 years old. On Christmas Day 2000, Tonelero, a 1972 submarine built for Brazil by the U.K.'s Vickers Ltd., sank in 9 meters of water at its dock in Rio de Janeiro. Sailors on the $150 million vessel had left a valve open, creating toxic gasses and forcing them to abandon ship before they could stop the flooding.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeb Blount in Rio de Janeiro at jblount@bloomberg.net .
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