Licensing

All nuclear facilities should have environmental licensing of IBAMA – Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) - and nuclear licensing of CNEN – Comissão Nacional de Energia Nuclear (National Nuclear Energy Commission).

Environmental Licensing

IBAMA is responsible for analyzing the impact that the activities of the facility may have on workers, the public and the environment.

Extensive documentation is analyzed, including the Environmental Impact Study and the Environmental Impact Report, which are available for the population to learn more about the enterprise.

Licensing comprises several steps: site permit, preliminary license and installation license until the permanent license is granted. In that license, the licensing body establishes a series of procedures that should be adopted to minimize the unit's operation impacts on the environment and populations.

Licenses are granted with established expiration dates. From the implementation of the project, IBAMA supervises the operations of industrial units, which must comply with the rules so as to ensure the renewal of the grant.

The INB Units have all the necessary permits so that they can produce according to current legislation.

Nuclear Licensing

Parallel to environmental licensing, each INB unit goes through a comprehensive and detailed licensing process with the National Nuclear Energy Commission - CNEN.

For a facility to obtain an operation permit, it is required to submit a safety analysis report to the CNEN, which assesses, among other aspects, the radiological elements. In this process, the facility is supervised by means of on-site inspections and the analysis of safety reports, which include the environmental and occupational monitoring programs.

The steps for licensing are as follows: Approval of the site - the viability of the proposed site is examined and approved after the company receives Authorization for construction; the third stage is the Authorization for Commissioning, which is the submission of a testing program able to prove that the construction and installation of security systems were carried out according to the initial project. The last step is the Authorization for Operation.