Russia's national nuclear company says its Internexco GmbH subsidiary and Brazil's state-owned Industrias Nucleares do Brasil (INB) have signed a contract to supply the Angra nuclear power plant from 2023 to 2027.

Angra 1 and 2 (Image: Eletronuclear)

It says the contract was the result of an open international tender that ended in August and it is "the first long-term contract with Brazil for the supply of enriched uranium products" for Rosatom.

According to documents on the INB website the tender was for the "hiring company to supply 330,000 kg of U in the form of natural UF6 (natural uranium hexafluoride)".

Rosatom added that it hoped the contract "opens access to the largest market for uranium products in the Latin American region".

Brazil and Russia already have ties within the the nuclear energy sector - most recently, in October, Participações em Energia Nuclear e Binacional SA (ENBPar) and Russia’s Rosatom signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) which seeks to promote mutual cooperation in areas and activities related to nuclear energy.

And an MoU was signed in 2017 by Rosatom and Brazil’s Eletrobras and Eletronuclear to promote cooperation in nuclear power.

Brazil currently has the two Angra reactors generating about 3% of its electricity and work is expected to resume shortly, after a seven-year break, on unit 3 of the Angra nuclear power plant near Rio de Janeiro.

But it is looking to further expand its nuclear capacity - in January Brazil began the process of identifying sites for new nuclear power units it wants to have in operation by 2050. And Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed possible bilateral nuclear energy cooperation when they met in February this year.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News