Edison Lobao, Brazil’s new minister of mines and energy, has indicated that the government plans to give approval by the end of 2011 for the construction of four new nuclear power plants in the country. Lobao said that the generating capacity of the new plants had not yet been determined, so there are no firm estimates on how much investment will be necessary for construction of the projects. However, a National Energy Plan to 2030 produced by EPE, which said that 6000 MW of nuclear capacity would be needed by that date, was adopted by the Brazilian government in 2007. The plan stipulated that the new sites should be large enough to host six 1000 MW reactors each. It is expected that two plants should be built in NE Brazil with the other two to be located in the SE. Ministers have previously said a 650 km stretch of coast in the northeast that spans the states of Bahia, Pernambuco, Alagoas and Sergipe was under consideration and that the first reactor could come online in 2019. Nuclear utility Eletronuclear and the Empresa de Pesquita Energética (Energy Research Company, EPE), part of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, signed an agreement in August 2010 to cooperate to develop preliminary studies for selection of future nuclear sites.