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The reactor may never operate RELATED VIDEO CNN's John Zarrella reports on a radiation detection system in Florida Windows Media 28K 80K Stuart Altman of the U.S. Defense Department talks about Cuba's nuclear plant Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

March 19, 1999
Web posted at: 11:08 a.m. EST (1608 GMT)

MIAMI (CNN) -- A warning system in Florida exists to detect radiation emitted from a nuclear power plant in Cuba -- a power plant that does not yet exist.

The Juragua plant was never completed because critical Russian financial support dried up. Nonetheless, a U.S. government report concluded that if it were ever completed, the facility would pose a danger to the eastern United States

Some scientists have feared a nuclear accident could expose millions of people in the United States or the Caribbean to radiation.

At least one U.S. congresswoman believes poor construction standards increase the chances of danger. "We have to let the international scientists know that the technology the Cubans are using is obsolete," said Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Florida. "The training has been terrible. The construction has been shoddy. The materials that they use are substandard."

Congress has heeded the alarm -- the body allocated $2 million to construct a network of radiation monitors in Florida.

So far the monitors have no use to the taxpayer

James Mullins of the Center for International Policy thinks that was a mistake, because the plant is half built and may never be finished. "It's a way of wasting the taxpayers' money on boondoggles that have no rational purpose whatsoever," he said.

Physicists maintain that monitors must operate before the plant's start-up. They want the monitoring sites in Miami, the Keys and St. Petersburg to gather data on radiation levels regularly.

"We have to get good baseline data to understand when we see radiation emissions from the plant in Cuba. If it goes online, we'll know it's coming from the Cuba plant," said Stuart Altman of the Defense Department.

Scientists admit a nuclear accident at the Cuba plant might leave millions of people in the surrounding regions exposed. But that would depend, in part, on something no one can control: which way the wind is blowing.

Miami Bureau Chief John Zarrella contributed to this report.

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