10 November 1997
UNFINISHED CUBAN NUCLEAR PLANTS SAID NOT TO THREATEN U.S.
(Delegation from U.S. urges rapprochement with Cuba) (790) By Eric Green USIA Staff Writer WASHINGTON -- Claims that construction of two Cuban nuclear power plants is now nearly complete and that they would pose a serious health threat to the United States are wildly overstated, says a group of senior U.S. researchers who recently returned from an inspection tour of the facility. Speaking at a November 10 news conference, Eugene Carroll, a former U.S. Navy admiral who now heads a Washington think tank, said the chance for a "nuclear Chernobyl in Cuba does not exist despite claims of alarmists in the United States." Carroll said reports that the two power plants in Cienfuegos, Cuba, were now 80 percent finished appear to be "overly optimistic." Construction of the plants, designed by engineers from the former Soviet Union, began in 1983. Carroll, who heads the Center for Defense Information, said his delegation to Cuba found that efforts by the Castro regime to preserve the uncompleted structures are continuing at a cost of $2 million to $3 million per year, with some cosmetic work having been done very recently. However, he added, no source of funding for the $1,000 million needed to complete the work "exists today or is foreseen in the future." As with others who spoke at the news conference, Carroll urged the United States and Cuba to begin a thaw in their acrimonious relationship. Carroll said the poor state of relations would be inflamed by an amendment in Congress concerning the budget of the U.S. Department of Defense. The amendment, Carroll said, declares Cuba to be an enemy of the United States and directs the Defense Department to conduct studies of the threat Cuba poses to this country. If such a bill became law, Carroll said, it would "freeze any progress in opening the door to better relations." Construction of what is called the Juragua nuclear power plant has been stalled for the last five years because of lack of funding, said Thomas Cochran, a nuclear physicist with the National Resources Defense Council -- and, he pointed out, even if it were to be finished it would not pose a safety threat to the United States. He added, however, that a nuclear accident, such as the one that occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the former Soviet Union in 1986, would endanger the Cuban population. Cochran denounced a bill in Congress that would put $300 million in the Pentagon budget directed toward detecting radioactivity coming from Cuba. The bill, he said, "is a total waste of money," and a "fleecing of America," in that it is unnecessary because of how the structure has been built. Cochran's assertions run contrary to studies performed by the U.S. General Accounting Office, the congressional investigative agency, which reported serious safety problems with the reactors. Robert White, a former U.S. envoy to Paraguay and El Salvador, said President Clinton has indicated a willingness in recent public remarks to have a better relationship with Cuba if that country would signal a desire to reciprocate. White called Clinton's remarks "an opportunity" for Cuba to improve relations and said that the Cuban government "would be reckless not to take it." White said that Pope John Paul II's upcoming trip to Cuba could also be used to "bring an end to the enmity" between the two nations. White was referring to comments Clinton made November 9 on the television program, "Meet the Press," in which the president noted that while U.S.-Cuban relations are presently at an impasse, he still wanted a better relationship with the Caribbean nation. "But we have to have some kind of indication that there will be an opening up, a movement toward democracy and openness and freedom if we're going to do that. And I don't have that indication today," Clinton said on the program. White also noted that the United States has a "very capable" U.S. Interests Section in Havana, with highly competent professionals, but that they are isolated from relations with the Cuban government because Cuban officials have grown highly pessimistic in recent months that there is any "future" in talking to the United States. White charged that U.S. policy toward Cuba, especially enactment of the Helms-Burton legislation and the long-standing American economic embargo against the Castro regime, "amounts to undeclared war" against Cuba, and is "almost tailor-made to achieving exactly the results we don't want." But at the same time, he added, Castro is also setting back relations by "this nonsense of jailing and persecuting dissidents" inside Cuba.
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