Brazil's Government will commission three new nuclear plants in the coming 12 months, Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao said Monday.
"We are projecting three more nuclear power plants that should be licensed within one year or slightly more," Edison Lobao, mines and energy minister, told journalists at an event in Sao Paulo.
The government is considering allowing private sector participation in the plants, but state-run Eletrobras would remain their majority shareholder, Lobao told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar.
"Angra 3, which we are building now, will be 1,300MW. The size of the others has not been defined," Lobao said.
The plants would be located principally in Brazil's northeast, he added, but also in the center-south.
The Brazilian Government has indicated four to eight nuclear plants could be built in the country by 2030.
HYDRO CONCESSIONS
Lobao also said the government should reach a decision within 30 to 40 days on hydroelectric plants whose concessions are expiring in the coming years.
This was seen as the main obstacle to the privatisation of Brazil's power utility Cesp in March.
Concession licenses for two of the company's hydroelectric plants, Jupia and Ilha Solteira, expire in 2015, after which they move into uncharted regulatory waters. The licenses had been renewed once and could not be renewed again unless the government granted special permission.
Technically, plants whose 30-year concessions expire and which have exhausted their permitted concessions extensions could return to the control of the state.
Concessions for Cesp's hydroelectric plant are not the only ones about to expire. There are 15,000MW to 20,000MW worth of hydroelectric power plants in Brazil whose concessions will expire in the coming ten years or less.
"This decision will cover all the concessions of hydroelectric plants heading toward renewal," Lobao said.
By Reese Ewing, Reuters
