Plans for a third reactor at the Angra nuclear-power complex near Rio de Janeiro have hit a serious snag: Germany is reconsidering crucial financial support it had pledged for the project. Germany agreed in the 1970s to back construction of a series of reactors—including Brazil’s second and third units, Angra II and III—with loan guarantees. The so-called Hermes guarantees, intended to pave the way for participation by German companies, were in fact used to attract financing for the Siemens-built Angra II, which went online last July. But with Germany moving to phase out its own nuclear power by 2021, political pressure has mounted in the country to halt the transfer of nuclear technology to other countries. When Brazilian President Fernando... [Log in to read more]