The Brazilian government has announced a moratorium on new nuclear plants for at least another decade.
Marcio Zimmermann, Executive Secretary of Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy, was quoted as saying at a public meeting on Wednesday that there was no need for new nuclear facilities at least until 2020.
Brazil's current energy plan, which runs through 2020, does not envisage any new nuclear power station because the government expects that power demand for the coming years can be met by hydro-electric power generation, and complementary energy sources such as wind, thermal and natural gas, Zimmermann said.
"The 2021 plan, as far as I know, will not consider nuclear power stations either," he added, although he did not rule out construction of such facilities in the longer term.
Speaking at the same event, Mauricio Tomalsquim, President of the EPE energy research firm, said the next decade would witness a fall in the supply of hydro-electric power in Brazil, and a rise in that of renewable energy sources.
He said the nuclear disaster in Japan last year prompted "the entire world to analyze and assess" the risks and viability of depending on nuclear power.
Immediately after the Japan quake, Brazil decided to tighten safety procedures at its sole nuclear power plant.
A massive earthquake-induced tsunami wrecked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, triggering the release of large amount of radioactive caesium into the atmosphere, reaching 40 percent of the total from Chernobyl.
Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had plans to build some 50 nuclear reactors, while the current Dilma Rousseff government shelved her predecessor's nuclear ambition.
Run by state-owned Eletronuclear, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eletrobrás, Brazil's Angra dos Reis nuclear power plant currently has two operating reactors, and the construction of a third one in the coastal town is scheduled to complete in 2015.
Nuclear energy constitutes just around three percent of the total power generation in Brazil, which relies overwhelmingly on hydro-electric projects.
The South American emerging economic power is the only country in the continent other than Argentina that is operating civilian nuclear power stations.
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