It was approved by a key House subcommittee in the form of an amendment by Rep. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., to legislation that is part of the State Department's budget process. And the Clinton administration said it will not oppose the measure.
The amendment calls for deducting the U.S. share of any support for Cuba's nuclear power program provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
It would require the United States to withhold about $600,000 over the next three years from $1.7 million that the agency intends to spend on technical projects in Cuba.
``This is great news for U.S. taxpayers and for all citizens in areas which could feel the disastrous effects of a nuclear accident 90 miles off our shores,'' Menendez said.
In 1992, citing financing problems, Cuba suspended construction of two Soviet-designed, 440-megawatt pressurized water reactors at Juragua, near Cienfuegos.
Critics of the plant -- including Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Peter Deutsch and Lincoln Diaz-Balart -- say its design is antiquated and it should never be finished.
``This amendment makes it clear that the United States will not continue to participate in an international organization which is willingly aiding the Castro regime in its dangerous attempts to obtain nuclear energy,'' Ros-Lehtinen said.
Since 1963, the International Atomic Energy Agency has spent about $12 million on nuclear technical assistance projects in Cuba, according to the General Accounting Office. The United States provides about $90 million a year to the agency.
Copyright © 1997 The Miami Herald