SAO PAULO, April 4 (UPI) -- Brazil is refusing to allow U.N. nuclear inspectors to examine a uranium enriching facility near Rio de Janeiro, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
Brazilian officials insist the facility -- still under construction -- will produce only low-enriched uranium used as fuel in power plants and not the highly enriched material used in weapons.
The plant is legal under international treaties, but is still subject to U.N. inspection. According to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, inspectors were prevented from seeing certain portions of the plant, the Post reported.
Brazilian officials say the inspections are unnecessary and intrusive, since Brazil formally abstained from nuclear weapon development in the 1990's.
However Washington is fearful Brazil's action will set a dangerous precedent for other nations. It is also concerned Brazil could develop the material for other nations seeking to create nuclear weapons. Brazil was major supplier of uranium to Iraq from 1979 until 1990.
The White House reportedly has no plans to prevent Brazil from finishing the facility, although it will encourage greater compliance with inspectors.
But Bush officials expressed their dismay with Brazilian officials' statements on nuclear matters in recent years. During his presidential run in 2002, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva complained the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty was unfair.
"If someone asks me to disarm and keep a slingshot while he comes at me with a cannon, what good does that do?" said Lula during a campaign speech.
