Valuable power source or potential Chernobyl? The answer depends on who you ask. RELATED VIDEO CNN's Lucia Newman takes a look at the controversial nuclear project Windows Media 28K 80K

May 18, 1999
Web posted at: 9:15 p.m. EDT (0115 GMT)

HAVANA (CNN) -- Cuban officials insist a planned nuclear power plant in Cuba would meet international safety standards and reject U.S. criticism that the facility is deteriorating and could trigger an environmental disaster.

"We don't comment on the nuclear power plants that the United States has in its territory," said Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage.

The Juragua power station, begun by the Cuban and Soviet governments in the early 1980s, was abandoned when it ran out of money after the Soviet Union collapsed.

However, Russia's Interfax news agency reported last week that Russia and Cuba reached agreement on a new joint venture to complete the plant, located on Cuba's southern coast.

U.S. officials have expressed skepticism that the Russians and Cubans can find the estimated $700 million needed to finish the project.

The plant is based on Soviet technology, but would use a light-water reactor, rather than the graphite-cooled model built in Chernobyl, Ukraine, the site of the world's worst nuclear accident.

Some U.S. critics fear the plant's construction is not safe, accusing the Cubans of constructing a facility riddled with cracks in concrete containment vessels and substandard welds in critical pipes. They fear an accident could threaten the United States.

In the event of an accident, nuclear fallout could travel up the east coast to the U.S. capital and as far west as Texas, according to the NOAA

According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, radiation leaks from the Cuban plant could be carried by Caribbean winds north to Florida and up the eastern seaboard to Washington, D.C., or possibly west to Texas.

"We certainly don't need another Chernobyl 90 miles away from the United States," said New Jersey congressman Bob Menendez, who suggested the United States respond by reducing U.S. aid to Russia by the same amount Russia invests in the plant.

Cuba said the nuclear plant will meet international requirements and said the government was willing to work with an International Atomic Energy body.

"We have not rejected this. We have excellent relations with those organizations. We've always worked with them, and not because anyone asks us to," Lage said.

Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman contributed to this report.

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