Cuba Nuclear Reactor Studied

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Wednesday May 12 12:48 PM ET 

Cuba Nuclear Reactor Studied

MOSCOW (AP) - A Russian-Cuban commission is looking into the 
possibility of completing a partially built nuclear reactor in Cuba, a 
news report said Wednesday.  

Construction of two Soviet-designed, light-water reactors began in 
the early 1980s, but financial problems in Cuba and the Soviet 
Union forced a halt to the project, and no additional work has been 
done in recent years despite periodic discussions.  

The possibility of setting up a joint venture to complete the Juragua 
nuclear plant was the main item on the agenda of the 
Intergovernmental Russo-Cuban Commission for Trade, Economic, 
Scientific and Technical Cooperation, the ITAR-Tass news agency 
said.   

Russia is proposing that two or three other countries be included in 
the venture, the report said.

The plant would cost $650 million to $700 million to complete, 
earlier news reports said.

The United States opposes the station and considers it a safety 
risk to Florida and other states along the Gulf of Mexico. Cuba
is 90 miles south of Florida.

Light-water reactors are considered safer than the graphite-cooled 
model that was in use in Chernobyl, Ukraine, the site of the world's 
worst nuclear accident. Critics say the Soviet-designed light-water 
reactors still do not meet the safety standards of Western nations.  


Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
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