Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 110 Part 1.djvu/825

 PUBLIC LAW 104-114—MAR. 12, 1996 110 STAT. 801 of Cuba's refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or ratify the Treaty of Tlatelolco. (2) Cuba has not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons or ratified the Treaty of Tlatelolco, the latter of which establishes Latin America and the Caribbean as a nuclear weapons-free zone. (3) The State Department, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Department of Energy have expressed concerns about the construction and operation of Cuba's nuclear reactors. (4) In a September 1992 report to the Congress, the General Accounting Office outlined concerns among nuclear energy experts about deficiencies in the nuclear plant project in Juragua, near Cienfuegos, Cuba, including— (A) a lack in Cuba of a nuclear regulatory structure; (B) the absence in Cuba of an adequate infrastructure to ensure the plant's safe operation and requisite maintenance; (C) the inadequacy of training of plant operators; (D) reports by a former technician from Cuba who, by examining with x-rays weld sites believed to be part of the auxiliary plumbing system for the plant, found that 10 to 15 percent of those sites were defective; (E) since September 5, 1992, when construction on the plant was halted, the prolonged exposure to the elements, including corrosive salt water vapor, of the primary reactor components; and (F) the possible inadequacy of the upper portion of the reactors' dome retention capability to withstand only 7 pounds of pressure per square inch, given that normal atmospheric pressure is 32 pounds per square inch and United States reactors are designed to accommodate pressures of 50 pounds per square inch. (5) The United States Geological Survey claims that it had difficulty determining answers to specific questions regarding earthquake activity in the area near Cienfuegos because the Cuban Government was not forthcoming with information. (6) The Geological Survey has indicated that the Caribbean plate, a geological formation near the south coast of Cuba, may pose seismic risks to Cuba and the site of the power plant, and may produce large to moderate earthquakes. (7) On May 25, 1992, the Caribbean plate produced an earthquake numbering 7.0 on the Richter scale. (8) According to a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, summer winds could carry radioactive pollutants from a nuclear accident at the power plant throughout all of Florida and parts of the States on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico as far as Texas, and northern winds could carry the pollutants as far northeast as Virginia and Washington, D.C. (9) The Cuban Government, under dictator Fidel Castro, in 1962 advocated the Soviets' launching of nuclear missiles to the United States, which represented a direct and dangerous provocation of the United States and brought the world to the brink of a nuclear conflict. (10) Fidel Castro over the years has consistently issued threats against the United States Government, most recently

�