Nuclear power in Cuba, uses and misuses (II)
The Nuclear Central that was not Perhaps the most legendary memory Cubans have on uses of nuclear energy was one that did not materialize. In 1976, Cuba and the Soviet Union signed an agreement to build two VVER-400 V316 nuclear reactors, which could have changed a considerable percentage of the energy source consumed in the country, mostly oil. The construction of the Juraguá nuclear power aroused some controversy off the island, particularly in the United States. The potential in Cuba for safe keeping two nuclear reactors without repeating the Chernobyl disaster was the subject of discussion as the idea matured that much of the Cuban energy consumption could come out from Cienfuegos. Construction of Nuclear Power Plant of Juraguá / Photo: Juventud Rebelde Journal 11/08/1992 However, the project did not stop because of skepticism. It was due to a decisive reason: the collapse of the European socialist bloc that broke the economic livelihood of the Central. They were half-built facilities, and a newly founded City with people who were going to work on them. Without the USSR, Cuba had no support to fund a project of this magnitude. In 1992 construction was halted and almost a decade later, Fidel Castro...