By Brazil Stock Guide – Brazil’s nuclear industry is pushing for power from the Angra complex to supply data centers benefiting from the country’s Redata tax regime, while industry executives see the unfinished Angra 3 plant and small modular reactors as potential sources for the sector’s growing electricity needs.
Representatives of the nuclear industry expect atomic power to be included among the energy sources eligible to supply projects under Redata, the Special Tax Regime for Data Center Services, according to Agência iNFRA.
Celso Cunha, president of the Brazilian Association for the Development of Nuclear Activities, known as Abdan, said Angra 3 could provide firm power for data-processing facilities. A federal decree would be needed because electricity generated by the Angra plants is currently allocated to Brazil’s regulated market.
“If you change the rule regarding Angra 3 and have it supply a data center, which is 1.6 GW, the plant can be completed in six years,” Cunha said.
Construction of Angra 3 remains suspended and is awaiting a decision by Brazil’s National Energy Policy Council, or CNPE, on whether the project should proceed.
Small Reactors
Former Mines and Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque said the Angra plants could already supply data centers through Brazil’s national interconnected power grid. He also pointed to smaller nuclear reactors as a possible dedicated power source for the facilities.
Allowing private companies to operate such reactors would require changes to Brazil’s nuclear regulatory framework, Albuquerque said.
“That has already been under study with the nuclear sector regulator, within the government itself and in Congress,” he said.
NBEPar, or Núcleo Brasil Energia Participações, a holding company of the privately held Diamante Group, is developing a private microreactor project using its own resources and financing from state-backed innovation agency Finep. The project is not yet operational.
Cunha said small reactors could alternatively be developed through public-private partnerships, with a government-controlled entity operating the plants. That structure, he said, could avoid the need for legislative changes.
“You currently need to have a state-owned company involved, but any state-owned company can do it,” Cunha said.
He cited Eletronuclear, ENBPar and Petróleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras (PETR4 BZ; PBR US), as potential participants.
Regulation Key to Demand
Albuquerque said Brazilian data-center operators have yet to start seeking nuclear power-supply agreements, with regulation likely to determine when demand emerges.
“That will happen once the regulation is in place,” he said.
Nuclear power is already being considered or deployed for data-center demand in other markets, Albuquerque said.
“It is already a reality in the US, South Korea and Russia, for example, it will happen in Europe soon, and we will certainly have it in Brazil,” he said.
Cunha said nuclear companies are already factoring potential data-center demand into their planning. Brazil’s Mines and Energy Ministry has also indicated in its National Energy Plan 2055 that new nuclear plants could add a combined 14 GW of generation capacity, according to the Abdan president.
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