No nuclear weapons, pledge Latin powers via Space War

by Staff Writers
Buenos Aires (UPI) Sep 7, 2011

Two of Latin America’s leading emergent nuclear powers, Argentina and Brazil, said they would campaign to keep the South Atlantic region free of nuclear weapons even as they push multibillion-dollar nuclear power development programs.

The Latin American countries’ interest in nuclear power development contrasts with dwindling support for the alternative to hydrocarbons as fuel, especially after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Argentina has a nuclear program going back to the 1950s and Brazil first initiated nuclear fission development in the 1930s. Both pursued covert nuclear weapons program under their respective military regimes but, even as they put those programs on hold, both maintained and enhanced their nuclear power generation capacity.

Despite the latest pronouncements, Brazil is on track to build its first nuclear-powered submarine with French help and Argentina is actively following similar aims to integrate its military and nuclear programs.

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