Brazil hasallocated $540 million in R&D on the submarine and on enrichment.

They believe that they can build a submarine for $1.2 billion.

They already have the enrichment technology down.

The justification is the newly discovered offshore Tupi field and its 5 billion to 8 billion barrels of oil reserves.

Truth be told, if all they want is an air-independent coastal defense boat, there are options out there, both with stored LOX, and the idea of using a smaller nuke plant, to provide underwater endurance, but not the higher underwater transit speeds of the US fleet submarines.