By Luciana Viegas Assumpcao, IAEA Office of Public Information and Communication

In the last part of his visit to Brazil, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi held meetings  with Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Alberto Franco França and other high-level officials in the capital Brasilia.

Discussions centred around current global challenges related to nuclear verification, nuclear safety and security, and on ways to intensify cooperation between Brazil and the IAEA to tackle plastic pollution, support early detection of zoonoses and ways to increase access to live-saving nuclear and radiation medicine in remote areas of the country.

Mr. Grossi reiterated the IAEA’s readiness to support Brazil with its new energy plans, which includes the completion of the Angra 3 reactor at the Almirante Alvaro Alberto Nuclear Power Plant. “Restarting the construction of a reactor that that has been halted for a number of years brings a host of challenges, but these can be overcome, and the IAEA is ready to support Brazil in this,” Grossi said.

Grossi also met with Brazil’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Marcos Pontes, and they discussed the IAEA’s NUTEC Plastic to curb plastic pollution in oceans and the ZODIAC initiative to prevent pandemics of zoonotic origin. ZODIAC aims to build capacities in countries to detect pathogens and monitor zoonotic diseases using nuclear and nuclear-derived techniques, such as RT-PCR tests. Brazil received 3 assistance kits to perform such test under the IAEA’s COVID-19 assistance.

Discussions also included the establishment of Brazil’s new regulatory authority ANSN, and Grossi reiterated IAEA support to Brazil in this effort. He invited Brazil to make full use of the IAEA’s safety and security review and advisory services, such as the Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS), which could provide valuable assistance.

The Director-General then met with the Commander of the Brazilian Navy, Fleet Admiral Almir Garnier Santos, and they discussed cooperation in radiation monitoring and environment research at the Comandante Ferraz research station in Antarctica, and IAEA support to the navy’s medical services, such as medical ships that deliver essential services in remote communities in the Amazonas. The IAEA has recently provided such ships with mammographs to facilitate the early detection of breast cancer.

“Brazil is an important IAEA Member State, with a well-developed expertise in the peaceful uses of nuclear technology,” Grossi said. The level of cooperation between the IAEA and Brazil has always been good, he added, and hopes that the visit will help intensify this link. “The IAEA stands ready to assist Brazil and hope to use Brazil’s vast experience in nuclear technology to the benefit of other IAEA Member States, such as lusophone countries in Africa, for example.”