Beginning of the Brazilian Nuclear Program

1945 marks the genesis of the Brazilian nuclear program. After the end of World War II, Brazil stopped being merely a supplier of strategic minerals to the United States and began the internal debate on the need to master atomic energy to drive its own economic and industrial development.

The world had just witnessed the devastating and technological power of the atom with the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In Brazil, the scenario was one of transition: the country was seeking to move beyond its purely agrarian base toward industrialization and urbanization, which demanded new and powerful energy sources to supply the growth of cities, especially in the Southeast.

Geologically, Brazil was already recognized for holding large reserves of monazite sands — rich in thorium and uranium — drawing the interest of the great powers.

1. February 1945
   During the Chapultepec Conference, the US formally proposes an agreement to acquire Brazilian monazite.
2. July 1945
   A secret agreement is signed between Brazil and the US. Brazil committed to export its entire production of atomic minerals (3,000 tons of monazite per year) exclusively to the Americans for three years.
3. August 1945
   The use of the atomic bombs in Japan accelerates Brazil's interest in not just being an exporter, but a holder of that technology.
4. August 1945
   Admiral Álvaro Alberto, considered the patron of nuclear science in Brazil, gives an interview warning of the importance of this new energy for the nation's future.

This early milestone laid the foundation for essential institutions such as CNPq (1951) and CNEN (1956).

The 1945 "awakening" planted the seed of the pursuit of technological sovereignty, challenging the foreign monopoly and shaping every later phase of the program — from the construction of research reactors to the nuclear submarine project.