Cienfuegos (2009-11-9)We reached the edge of the bay. The flight of a pair of pelicans, who constantly dived for food, made, in principle, we didn’t realize the image that you could see in the distance, across the arm of the sea: the characteristic silhouette of a nuclear reactor.
But... Does Cuba have any nuclear power stations? we wondered.
Juraguá Nuclear Power Plant from Cienfuegos (2009-11-9) We were seized by the panic and we thought that this was the reason for not seeing anyone on the streets. There weren’t people because they didn’t trust the Cuban technology. It was possible that there had been a nuclear accident and at that moment we were breathing the deadly radiactive air.
Fortunately we soon saw some Cuban people and we rushed towards them. Was it true about the radiation leak from the nuclear plant? we asked them.
They looked at us astonished and kept on their way while they talked between themselves:
"Estos gringos están locos, piensan que Castro puede hacer que incluso una central nuclear que nunca se ha puesto en marcha produzca radiactividad"
In fact, Juraguá Nuclear Power Plant never worked.
Let’s read from Wikipedia:
Juragua Nuclear Power Plant was a nuclear power plant in Cuba in 1992 when a suspension of construction was announced following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the termination of Soviet economic aid to Cuba.
In 1976 Cuba the Soviet Union signed an agreement to construct two 440-megawatt nuclear power reactors (VVER-440 V318) in the south central province of Cienfuegos near Juraguá. Upon completion, the first reactor (Juragua 1), would have generated over 15% of Cuba's energy demands. The construction of these reactors was a priority for Cuba because of its dependence on imported oil. This version of VVER-440 was designed to have full containment structure.
The construction of the reactors began in 1983 and most of the reactor parts, except for civil construction materials, were supplied by the Soviet Union under bilateral economic cooperation agreements. The first reactor was scheduled to be operational in 1993. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union disrupted construction at Juragua, as a market economy established new economic ties and Russia began providing technical assistance to Cuba on a commercial basis. On September 5, 1992, Cuban President Fidel Castro announced a suspension of construction at Juragua due to Cuba's inability to meet the financial terms set by Russia to complete the reactors. A September 1992 GAO report estimated that civil construction on the first reactor ranged from 90 to 97% complete with only 37% of the reactor equipment installed, while the second reactor was only between 20 and 30% completed.
The editor of Wikipedia is very moderate because if we look for information online we will find many tendentious comments. Most people are against that Cuba has a nuclear power plant. For them, Cuba, like all Third World countries, has restricted rights. They think “We can do because we are democratics but they do not”.
However, we should not forget that the ecological catastrophe to which we are going due to the global warming (and that will dwarf any nuclear accident) has been produced by democratic countries in honour of the Holy Market Economy.
Let’s be honest, it is possible to achieve sustainable development from the free market economy (synonymous with liberal democracy)?
