Brazil and Nuclear Weapons.

[SouthAmerica]

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June 30, 2007

SouthAmerica: Reply to Copablanca

Brazil is on its way to become one of the superpowers of the future.

And there is nothing you can do about it to stop Brazil from taking it's special place in the world stage.

You think like a loser that you are.

You know where you can stick your fatwa.


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[Capablanca]

Quote from southamerica:
Brazil is on its way to become one of the superpowers of the future.

And there is nothing you can do about it to stop Brazil from taking it's special place in the world stage.

As I said it's about ego. Brazil will become a superpower. China will become a superpower. India will become a superpower. Will Argentina, Japan, and Pakistan be willing to play second fiddle? Nah, they'll become superpowers too. Will Russia allow these upstarts to threaten its traditional role as foil to the US? Perhaps they should increase their stockpiles again? North Korea probably considers itself a superpower already. Maybe some overambitious tyrannic nut from Africa will be inspired to follow suit.

Pride goes before the fall.

 

[SouthAmerica]

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Capablanca: As I said it's about ego. Brazil will become a superpower. China will become a superpower. India will become a superpower. Will Argentina, Japan, and Pakistan be willing to play second fiddle? Nah, they'll become superpowers too.


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July 1st, 2007

SouthAmerica: Reply to Capablanca


First, the notion of 2 superpowers it has been long dead – it has been dead for more than 10 years.

In the new century we will not have one or two superpowers as we did in the last century. We are going to have a different system with many globalized superpowers including the following groups:

1) The United States also including Mexico and Canada,
2) The European Union,
3) A reborn Soviet Union,
4) An Arab Union in the Middle East, and
5) An Asian Union including China, India, Japan, a new Korea (united), and Brazil.


Anyway, based on the old notion of a superpower, we can say that China already is a superpower today.


You also said: “Argentina and Pakistan be willing to play second fiddle?”

The answer is they have no choice but play second fiddle.

When compared with Brazil – the Brazilian population is only 15 percent larger than the Pakistani population, but Brazil’s GDP is 800 percent larger than the Pakistan’s GDP.

Pakistan would be a superpower only if you compare Pakistan with Somalia, Ethiopia, and Uganda.

Here are the major industries of Pakistan: textiles and apparel, food processing, pharmaceuticals, construction materials, paper products, fertilizer, shrimp, and illegal drugs.

Pakistan has a 1900 economy but armed with nukes.

Argentina already plays second fiddler in South America. But Argebtina has the technology to build nuclear weapons overnight.


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Capablanca: Will Russia allow these upstarts to threaten its traditional role as foil to the US? Perhaps they should increase their stockpiles again?


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SouthAmerica: You have the obsolete mentality that the United States or Russia would allow other countries to build nuclear weapons.

Just look around – North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Cuba – they are all armed or in the process of arming themselves with nukes - and there are many other countries that are capable to build nuclear weapons overnight such as Germany, Japan, Argentina, South Africa, Brazil, and so on….

The days that the United States or the Soviet Union had the power or at least the appearance of having the power - to stop other countries from developing nuclear weapons are long gone – even when they had the ability to project that kind of power many countries developed nuclear weapons right under their noses anyway such as Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea.

By the way, the Russians don’t need to build new nuclear weapons – they already have thousands of them.

It is an illusion that you need more than 10 nuclear warheads to be considered a member of the exclusive nuclear weapons club. For all practical purposes if the need arises of your country ever need to use more than 10 nuclear warheads, at that point, if your country has 11, 12, 50, 100 or 15,000 nukes it does not make any difference.


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[SouthAmerica]

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“Lula resumes nuclear program to make Brazil 'world power'”
Al Sidra Media LLC – 7DAYS, United Arab Emirates
Wednesday, 11 July 2007

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday relaunched the country's nuclear program, promising to complete a nuclear submarine and a third atomic power plant both mothballed 20 years ago.

"Brazil could rank among those few nations in the world with a command of uranium enrichment technology, and I think we will be more highly valued as a nation -- as the power we wish to be," Lula said at the navy's Technological Center in Sao Paulo.

"If money was lacking, it won't be lacking now," Lula said.

Finishing the nuclear submarine would cost an estimated 68 million dollars over eight years, he said.

"And who knows, with a little more (money), we may build it sooner, because it is running late," Lula said, 20 years after the project was abandoned.

He also confirmed the government would complete the Angra III nuclear plant in Rio de Janeiro state, after the National Committee on Energy Policy approved the project two weeks ago.

"We will complete Angra III, and if necessary, we'll go on to build more (nuclear plants) because it is clean energy and now proven to be safe," Lula said. The plant will cost 3.5 billion dollars over five and a half years, he said.

"Nuclear energy has been tested and approved in Brazil. It is safe and we have the technology. So why not go for it?" Lula said.

Two weeks ago Lula said the country's energy demand was growing at five percent a year. He said the government had to assure investors that there will be no energy shortage after 2010.

However, Greenpeace criticized Lula's announcement as reviving a dream of Brazil's 1964-1985 military regime, which Lula battled as a trade union leader.

"He will reignite the 30-year dream of the military, with no benefit -- but lots of problems -- for the country," Greenpeace anti-nuclear leader Guilherme Leonardi told AFP.

Leonardi said the submarine could be "used for spying or sneak attacks and is unneeded in peacetime."

"Nuclear energy is unnecessary because it is expensive, dirty, dangerous and outdated," he said, adding: "Brazil has enormous potential in clean, environmentally friendly solar and biomass energy."

Brazil has the world's sixth largest reserves of uranium, and completing the nuclear submarine would help Brazil to learn uranium enrichment.

Brazil could then command the complete nuclear fuel cycle, from mining to recycling, navy commander Julio Moura said recently. A submarine-size reactor could also power a small city, he said.

"We have what it takes to become a great energy power and we are not going to give that up," Lula said.

However, Lula's Environment Minister Marina Silva opposes the projects: "In the last 15 years, no country has built nuclear power plants because of the problems with the waste.

"We have other sources of power: a great potential in hydroelectric, and clean energies in which we should invest," she said.

The 2004 opening of a uranium enrichment facility in Resende, outside Rio de Janeiro, triggered international controversy…


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