Greenpeace protests nuclear energy use in Brazil

Rio de Janeiro -- - Greenpeace activists staged a rally Wednesday - the 58th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan - to protest the use of nuclear energy to generate electricity in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

The demonstration outside the headquarters of state-owned power firm Eletrobras, which operates the country's two nuclear energy plants in the resort city of Angra dos Reis, was as colorful and dramatic as the environmental organization's rallies usually are.

Greenpeace Energy Campaign national coordinator Sergio Dialetachi told reporters the protest was part of the organization's worldwide week-long campaign known as "Hiroshima, Never Again."

"Besides being unsafe, dirty and costly, these nuclear plants were always involved in parallel military projects, like the one which served for the research that led to the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki," the activist said.

While Dialetachi used a megaphone to explain Greenpeace's position, his fellow activists lay prone on the ground to represent the "victims" of a mock nuclear explosion, which included an inflatable red "mushroom cloud" and a yellow powdery substance that drifted in front of the Eletrobras building.

During the rally, Greenpeace continued to gather signatures for its campaign against the construction of a third nuclear power plant - projected to cost some $2.5 billion - in the same Angra dos Reis region, which the Brazilian government hopes will help reduce the country's large power deficit.