[2] After the Carnation Revolution, a military coup in April 1974 which overthrew the Estado Novo regime, projects for the construction of nuclear power plants have since been postponed or dismissed by the government.
Portugal first began developing nuclear energy in 1948, when the Instituto para a Alta Cultura (Superior Culture Institute) proposed the creation of a commission of geologists and physicists to study uranium supplies and mining technologies to the Ministry for National Education.
In 1957, at the 2nd Portuguese Industry Meeting, Armando Gilbert presented a communication in which he underlined the importance of beginning to use nuclear energy, starting from 1965.
CPIN, in 1959, began to intensify the studies and to train engineers for the installation of a first pilot nuclear plant, with approximate power of 50 MWe, to be completed by 1965.
In April 1974 the Estado Novo, the authoritarian right-leaning regime of Portugal, was overthrown due to a leftist military coup.
Another study was exposed in December 1977 to the secretary for energy and mines, which presented the possibility of building 4 to 7 1000 MWe nuclear reactors between 1990 and 2000.
At the end of that parliamentary term, the government emitted the joint order number 531/99, in which it formalized the position of Portugal on the nuclear energy issue at international level.
[5] It was only in February 2005 that nuclear was brought once again to attention when the businessman Patrick Monteiro de Barros, together with other promoters, proposed the construction of a 1600 MWe EPR reactor.
The strong opposition from the environmentalist organisations and companies involved in the renewable energy business forbid not only the further development of Monteiro de Barros project, but of the nuclear option in any form.
The President of the CIPRSN is nominated by the Prime Minister, and is entitled to represent Portugal in the European Nuclear Security Regulators Group (ENSREG).