By Melanie Yeager, Democrat Staff Writer
Tallahassee
Democrat Online, March 21
The answers, they say, are blowing in the wind.
From a small basement room of the Nuclear Research Building, Florida State University physicists may be the first to know whether Cuba is running an unsafe nuclear reactor.
FSU has entered into a contract with Pacific-Sierra Research Corp. to study air filters sent from about six substations that will eventually dot the Gulf of Mexico's coastline.
Bob Shipman, Pacific-Sierra's manager for the project dubbed CREWS (Caribbean Radiation Early Warning System), said the stations will capture air samples from trade winds coming out of Cuba.
Samuel Tabor, who is leading FSU physicists on the project, said his team will be scanning the filters for trace amounts of certain radioactive material -- Cesium 137, Iodine 131 and Strontium 90 -- found in nuclear fission.
"The radioactive material gives off gamma rays which serve as fingerprints," Tabor said.
Pacific-Sierra provides the detection instrument used -- a high resolution germanium gamma ray spectrometer -- which resembles an oversized crockpot. Its lead-and-copper interior makes it difficult for even three men to lift.
Whether Cuba will build a nuclear reactor in Juragua remains disputed. Russians began its construction in 1983, but halted work in September 1992 with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Icy relations between the United States and Cuba make it difficult to keep tabs on Cuba's construction plans. But if Cuba does finish its plant, Tabor said that brings up several safety concerns: What is the quality of the plant's construction? How will it be regulated? And, how has initial construction weathered these eight years of delay?
Cuban President Fidel Castro said in September that construction of the reactor has been suspended indefinitely. But U.S. lawmakers want to be ready in case a reactor is in operation by December 2000.
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Terry Sutherland said Congress mandated the monitoring of Cuban winds and appropriated $2 million for the Pacific-Sierra project in 1998.
Sutherland said the United States must monitor the air now for a "before" picture of the air in case Cuba's reactor fires up in the future.
"It gives us timely data in the event of a catastrophic radioactive release," Sutherland said.
But the CREWS project is just a waste of $2 million, said Wayne Smith, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, a Washington, D.C. think tank of past diplomats and intelligence officers.
"It's mothballed. It will probably never be constructed. They don't have the money," said Smith, who has visited the abandoned structure in Juragua.
"If there's some indication that the project might go ahead, you'd still have two or three years of lead time. The plant couldn't possibly be completed in less time than that."
Tabor said FSU realizes its work may never uncover a looming catastrophe.
"But of course, that's good for Florida," he said.
Instead FSU was lured to the project because it provided $20,482 toward part-time income for some undergraduate physics majors, as well as practical work experience, Tabor said. The contract is up for renewal in one year.
This week physicists will begin checking air filters sent from a St. Petersburg station.
Tabor said the filters, which measure 60 centimeters by 60 centimeters, are compressed into a sponge-like circle before being tested in the spectrometer. Tested filters will be placed in airtight plastic bags and can be stored for years in a filing cabinet, he said.
Shipman said he hopes to set up other air stations in Miami; the Keys; Port Aransas, Texas; the Yucatan; and one of the three coastal states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
He said Pacific-Sierra also is searching for other scientific uses for its air-sampling system in case Cuba does not build its nuclear reactor.
Melanie Yeager covers higher education. She can be reached at 599-2306 or by e-mail at myeager@taldem.com
Posted at 12:12 a.m. EST Sunday, March 21, 1999
All content © 1999 Tallahassee Democrat.