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The country’s largest oil company might be considering an unexpected path to cut emissions: installing a small nuclear reactor of up to 300 MW inside a refinery in Rio de Janeiro. This information comes from an exclusive report and, for now, remains in the study phase, without official confirmation from Petrobras.
It’s worth starting with what is not yet known. According to an exclusive report by CNN Brasil published in early July, Petrobras is considering entering nuclear power generation with a Small Modular Reactor, known as SMR, with a capacity of about 300 MW. The idea, in the first phase, would be to implement the unit in a refinery in Rio de Janeiro to decarbonize the electricity consumption of operations. The company, when contacted, did not comment, so this is a plan under study, not a decision made.
What exactly is a modular reactor
It’s worth explaining the concept because it is key to the story. An SMR is a nuclear reactor of up to 300 MW, about one-third the power of a traditional plant like Angra 2. The difference is not only in size: its components are pre-fabricated in series at the factory and then transported and assembled on-site, which promises to reduce cost and time compared to the gigantic nuclear projects built one by one.
Because they occupy much less space and rely on passive safety systems, these reactors could, in theory, be installed next to an industrial complex, something unthinkable for a large-scale plant. The fuel reload is also more spaced out, done every three to seven years, compared to one to two years for conventional plants. In the more distant future, the report even mentions the use of the technology on offshore production platforms and ships, although this is an even more embryonic hypothesis.
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Why Petrobras would look to the atom
The logic behind the study is decarbonization. Refineries and platforms consume enormous amounts of electricity, currently generated largely by burning fossil fuels. Replacing part of this generation with nuclear energy, which practically does not emit carbon during operation, would help the state-owned company meet its environmental goals without depending on the weather, as happens with solar and wind sources.
I confess that the image of a nuclear reactor inside a refinery sounds bold, almost like fiction. But it fits into a larger movement in the country. The Ministry of Mines and Energy already maintains a working group dedicated to formulating a national policy for these reactors and, in July, began the phase of mapping the Brazilian territory in search of viable locations, considering factors such as seismic risk and water availability for cooling.
Brazil already involved with nuclear
The country is not starting from scratch. Besides the Angra 1 and Angra 2 plants, in operation for decades, and the eternal Angra 3 project, Brazil has been developing for years the Navy’s nuclear submarine reactor, at the Iperó laboratory in São Paulo. The government intends to use this national technology as a basis for a future civilian modular reactor on land. In parallel, a working group was created in July to evaluate the role of Brazilian uranium, as the country is among those with the largest known reserves in the world.
Here, a caution is necessary that I make sure to note: these are three different things that should not be confused. The 300 MW SMR studied by Petrobras, the 3 MW experimental microreactor being developed by research institutes, and the Navy’s naval reactor are projects of different scales and purposes, each at its stage.
This entire effort is happening while the country still hasn’t resolved an old issue. The Angra 3 plant, started decades ago, remains unfinished, with just over two-thirds of the work completed. Stalled, it costs about R$ 1 billion per year to the public coffers. It’s a reminder that, in Brazil, nuclear projects are usually easier to announce than to finish. Perhaps that’s precisely why the bet on smaller, modular reactors, assembled like factory pieces, sounds so appealing: it promises to escape the trap of large projects that never come to an end.
The obstacles and the global race
The biggest bottleneck is regulatory. Brazil still does not have a specific framework to license this type of reactor, and that’s precisely why Petrobras would already be talking to the National Nuclear Safety Authority, ANSN, created in 2021 and which claims to be preparing to license this new technology. Without this framework, no reactor gets off the ground, no matter how advanced the study is.
Globally, the race is advanced. China has completed tests of the Linglong One, a 125 MW reactor, aiming to be the first commercial modular reactor on land in the world, while Russia already operates a floating reactor. In the United States, NuScale’s reference project was certified, but the flagship project was eventually canceled after costs skyrocketed. The International Atomic Energy Agency catalogs more than 80 modular reactor projects in development worldwide.
Brazil, if it decides to advance, would enter this race starting from behind. I wonder if, a decade from now, the word “refinery” will still mean just oil, or if it will come to coexist, on the same ground, with the atom. For now, however, it’s all just a study, and the path between the idea and the first reactor being turned on is usually much longer than the announcement makes it seem.
Would you trust a nuclear reactor installed inside a Brazilian refinery to generate clean energy?
