U.S. Must Take Pro-active Stance with Cuba Going Nuclear Next Door

South Floridians have a right to feel a great deal less than overwhelmed with relief at the prospect that Congress soon may approve a device to detect radioactive fallout from nuclear reactors currently being built in Cuba.

The two Russian-designed power plants near Juragua on Cuba's southern coast have been planned for nearly a decade, but construction was suspended after the Soviet Union collapsed and funding evaporated.

Now, however, the project appears to be back on track and American experts are worrying in earnest about the possible consequences of a catastrophic Chernobyl-type accident 180 miles from the Florida Keys.

Congressional analysts believe that the plants will be unsafe and will be manned by inexperienced personnel. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration estimates the radioactive plume from a nuclear meltdown in Cuba could contaminate a wide swath of the United States from Texas to Virginia.

The U.S. has attempted to discourage foreign investors from helping Cuba complete its nuclear complex without success. Four decades of hostility and tough economic sanctions have left Washington with virtually no diplomatic leverage on Havana and no meaningful input into the design and safety of the reactors.

There is no indication that the civilian power plants are intended for nuclear weapons-making, like the Iraqi reactor that was bombed by Israel in 1980, so a pre-emptive military strike should be out of the question. With few viable options, the U.S. apparently is reduced to installing a $3-million fallout-detection system to alert residents of Florida and other Gulf Coast states whenever a lethal cloud of radioactivity heads their way.

Somehow, that prospect is not very reassuring to those of us who live here.

It would make much better sense for the Clinton administration to recognize the seriousness of the nuclear threat and seek to engage Cuba in a dialogue of mutual interest on this issue, as it has already done with another bitter enemy, North Korea.

Three years ago, the U.S. negotiated an agreement with Pyongyang to replace North Korea's Russian-style reactors with safer new ones unlikely to be used for warhead-making. The deal will cost the U.S. and South Korea hundreds of millions of dollars, but it is considered well worth the expense to prevent both a disastrous accident and a new nuclear arms race in Asia.

That same logic should be even more compelling when the nuclear threat resides in America's own backyard.

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