A major portion of Brazil's power is generated by hydro plants, but to guarantee the efficient operation of the national power system, a greater diversity of its power matrix composition is required.
Thermal power (gas, oil and coal plants) helps to control most safely the level of water resources which supply the hydro plants. Nuclear power plants are also thermal (they generate power from heat released by fission of enriched uranium atom core), but do not emit polluting gases causing the greenhouse effect like the other heat sources.
Nuclear power plants occupy relatively small areas (3,5 km2 in case of Angra), are located near power consumption places - thus avoiding power losses owing to long transmission lines - and are supplied with uranium, an ore which abounds in Brazil.
Nuclear power is the only power source where all process steps are duly monitored and entirely controlled and which releases no noxious products to the environment. As nuclear power has no share at all in the greenhouse effect - which has brought about the warming of the planet and troublesome climate changes - this has led environmentalist organizations and movement leaders, formerly uncompromising criticizers of nuclear power plant construction, to reconsider their previous positions.
Eletronuclear's commitment to environment preservation is evidenced in its support of several projects such as the construction and equipment of Tamoios Ecological Station headquarters.
This Station, which is called technically "conservation unit", was assigned the research and preservation of the ecosystem of 29 islands - including islets, sea knolls and rocks spread over Ribeira and Ilha Grande Bays.
Eletronuclear also helped to establish Angra dos Reis Environmental Study Centre and participates in the Green Belt Program, which aims at damming up unruly occupation of hillsides and dangerful places at Angra.
Eletronuclear has developed environmental education projects in conjunction with Angra schools, including visits to Poran Trail, an Atlantic Forest reservation located in an ETN-owned area, and reforestation of degraded land.
The POMAR Project
The Ilha Grande Bay Sea Restocking Project (POMAR) developed by the Ilha Grande Bay Ecodevelopment Institute (IED-BIG), with Eletronuclear's support, aims at developing sea farming in that area and preventing extinction of "coquilles Saint-Jacques" (or scallops - a shellfish native of the Brazilian seacoast). Millions of "coquille" fries have been bred in the laboratory of the Institute in Angra dos Reis, and a portion of the fries bred has been donated to local fishermen who learnt "coquille" breeding and established their own sea farms.
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