Sao Paulo, Dec 27 (IANS/EFE) Brazilian Defence Minister Nelson Jobim ruled out the construction of an atomic bomb in the South American country as a strategy for consolidating Brazil’s leadership in the region, local media said Saturday.
“Don’t even think about it, that is the product of speculation by some diplomat who came here with no knowledge of Brazil,” Jobim said in a statement to the online edition of the daily Folha de Sao Paulo.

Since Brazil announced its nuclear plan in 2007 with the enrichment of its own uranium and the construction of a submarine propelled by atomic energy, the international community has been following attentively the South American nation’s defence strategies.

On the question of a submarine, Jobim said that Brazil needs it to guard the more than 50,000 million barrels of oil in Brazil’s undersea deposits.

Brazil’s underwater territory has a surface of 4.5 million square kilometres, and in the strip between the southern state of Santa Catarina and the state of Espiritu Santo in the southeast lie the country’s greatest underwater riches,” Jobim said.

The enriched uranium is used for nuclear medicine and for thermoelectric projects.

–IANS/EFE

sy