Brazil, IAEA Reportedly Reach Pact

The Brazilian government said Wednesday that it had won approval from the International Atomic Energy Agency to start enriching uranium at its Resende plant after months of disagreement over inspections.

Other officials said the deal wasn’t complete.

Science and Technology Minister Eduardo Campos said the plant would be started up before the end of the year now that the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, had verified the plant’s design -- one element of the approval process.

But IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said, “We are still in the process of completing our assessment of the inspection approach for the Resende plant.”

A European diplomat close to the IAEA said that “a deal appears to be very close” and might be concluded in a week.

The main sticking point in the negotiations between Brazil and the agency has been a system for inspecting the plant. Brazil has insisted that it will not give IAEA inspectors full visual access to the plants’ centrifuges or to its technological know-how.

Campos said, however, that a group of technicians from the agency had visited the Resende uranium enrichment plant Nov. 16-18 to verify its design.

Odair Dias Goncalves, president of Brazil’s National Nuclear Energy Commission, said an agreement on the design was the basis for a deal on inspections.

Washington has pressured Brazil to give IAEA inspectors full access to the Resende installation, out of concern that Brazil’s reluctance may embolden countries such as Iran to close off their atomic programs to international inspections.

On the eve of a key IAEA meeting today, Iran sought to partially roll back its commitment to freeze uranium enrichment.

Iran’s push to operate 24 centrifuges for what it says are research purposes did not seem to represent a major move because thousands of centrifuges must operate for months to produce enough enriched uranium for a nuclear warhead.

A deal between Tehran and the European Union committed Iran to full suspension of enrichment and all related activities while the negotiations continue.