BRASILIA, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio da Silva announced on Tuesday that his government will relaunch its mothballed nuclear program, including building a nuclear submarine and the nation's third nuclear power plant.

    During a visit to the Brazilian Navy's Technology Center in the state of Sao Paolo, da Silva said Brazil will set aside from budget 1 billion reals (more than 500 million U.S. dollars) over the next eight years to complete the program, which was discarded 20 years ago.

    "We will complete Angra III, and if necessary, we'll go on to build more nuclear plants because it is clean energy and now proven to be safe," said da Silva, better known in Brazil by his nickname, Lula,

    "Nuclear energy has been tested and approved in Brazil. It is safe and we have the technology. So why not go for it?" he added.

    The Angra III power plant was approved by the National Energy Policy Committee three weeks ago.

    The submarine program will cost around 68 million dollars and take eight years, Lula said.

    In earlier public statements, the commander of Brazil's navy, Admiral Julio Soares de Moura, had said that a nuclear-powered submarine could patrol Brazil's enormous coastline more efficiently. The nation has already had five conventional submarines and would build the new boat with mostly foreign technology, but a Brazilian nuclear reactor.

    The navy's nuclear program, begun in 1979, has already completed part of the enrichment process.

    Brazil's two existing nuclear plants, Angra I and Angra II, have an installed capacity of about 2,000 megawatts. Angra III will raise the capacity to 3,300 megawatts, at a cost of about 3.6billion dollars, according to the Mines and Energy Ministry.

    Lula has publicly defended nuclear energy as a solution to power shortages that could hit Brazil as early as 2009.