Federal police officers leave the headquarters of Eletrobras’ Eletronuclear division in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, yesterday.

Reuters/Curitiba, Brazil

Brazilian police yesterday arrested two executives involved in building a nuclear power plant for Eletrobras, pulling the state-run utility into a corruption scandal that has engulfed government-owned oil company Petrobras.
The arrests come as federal police follow allegations that a price-fixing, bribery and political kickback scheme they discovered at Petrobras extends to other state-led firms, including Eletrobras, Brazil’s largest utility.
“This is the first step in investigating the energy sector,” federal police agent Igor Romario de Paulo said in a press conference.
Yesterday’s operation, named “Operation Radioactivity,” focused on Eletrobras’ Eletronuclear division, which is building a third nuclear-power reactor at Angra dos Reis, about 100kms west of Rio de Janeiro.
Police detained Eletronuclear chief executive Othon Luiz Pinheiro da Silva, currently on leave.
A prosecutor alleged that da Silva received 4.5mn reais ($1.2mn) in bribes from engineering firms Andrade Gutierrez and Engevix.
Federal prosecutor Athayde Ribeiro Costa told journalists that police also had arrested Andrade Gutierrez executive Flavio Barra yesterday.
Andrade Gutierrez, Brazil’s No. 2 engineering firm, said in a statement it had always co-operated with investigators.
Its chief executive is among the engineering executives who have been arrested as part of the probe linked to Petrobras, formally known as Petroleo Brasileiro SA. More than two dozen lawmakers, mostly from President Dilma Rousseff’s ruling coalition, also have been implicated.
Ribeiro Costa said police also are investigating UTC Engenharia, Odebrecht, Camargo Correa, Queiroz Galvao, and Engevix, many of whose executives have been accused in other parts of the probe.
Eletrobras, which is formally known as Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA, declined to comment.
Besides the arrests, the operation included 23 search and seizure warrants in Brazil’s largest cities, according to a Federal Police statement.
The detainees will be taken to Curitiba, the capital of Brazil’s southern Paran? state, where the federal judge leading the case is based.
Allegations of bribery are the latest woes to hit the Angra 3 plant, a third reactor under construction at the country’s only nuclear power facility.
Angra 3 was shelved more than two decades ago as Brazil entered a debt and inflation crisis that stalled infrastructure spending, but Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government revived the project in the early 2000s. It has faced repeated delays and cost overruns.
The budget for the most recent phase of Angra 3 has risen to 14bn reais from 7.2bn reais in 2008, according to Eletronuclear.
Energy Minister Eduardo Braga said in May that it would be the country’s last nuclear power station built as a public works project, as the government looks to private investors to backstop an overburdened electricity system based on hydropower.
French nuclear energy company Areva, which signed a 1.25bn euro contract to supply engineering services and components in 2013, said last month it had reduced work on Angra 3 because of financing delays.