Did you know that today all the millions of Americans living on the Eastern seaboard are threatened by a Caribbean Chernobyl? Our Lady of Fatima warned us that entire nations would be annihilated if Her requests were not heeded. The accident of Chernobyl was no accident, as Josyp Terelya, a Catholic prisoner of conscience in the Russian Gulag for 23 years, explained on our TV program. A Russian KGB officer told Terelya that the nuclear reactors were built around the populated areas of the Ukraine rather than in Siberia so as to keep the Ukrainian people in subjugation. Is this what's now in place for the U.S.A.? The reactor in Cuba is very bad, perhaps even more defective than that of Chernobyl and it is only 90 miles off our coast. Read this report of June 29, 1991, of issue 505 of American Sentinal. Judge for yourself if you need be alarmed.

       In issue 501, The American Sentinel exposed Fidel Castro's crash program to activate four Soviet VVER-440 nuclear reactors by 1992 (utilizing technology based upon a 1960s pre-Chernobyl design). The major television networks — which ran the story several weeks later — failed to mention how Castro's imported VVER-440 reactors are so prone to catastrophic accident that Moscow abandoned the model in the early 1980s. (The newly liberated countries of Eastern Europe, citing inadequate safety features, have rushed to shut down their VVER-440s.) Unfortunately, the normally-vocal anti-nuclear group Greenpeace has come to the defense of smiling Cuban officials in Havana — who refuse to permit international inspection of the project while insisting that there is no danger of a Caribbean Chernobyl. Greenpeace spokesman William Arkin recently parroted the Cuban line to the Associated Press Wire Service, insisting that the danger from Castro's plan to fire up antiquated VVER-440's is overblown: "Cuban technical skills are high, there is no cause for concern, and warnings about a disaster in the offing should be dismissed."

       Make no mistake: Every American on the Eastern Seaboard is threatened by Castro's Soviet-made reactors, which are based upon a substandard design universally rejected in the West. To counter Greenpeace's white-wash of Castro's crash nuclear program, The American Sentinel has obtained an interview with Vladmir Cervera, a nuclear engineer who worked at the construction site until his defection to the United States in May.

Greenpeace Endorses Cuba's Nuclear Program:

       We've repeatedly stressed that the modern environmental movement is a Trojan horse for socialism in America. Here's more proof: Greenpeace and the powerful anti-nuclear lobby are not just silent about Castro's risky nuclear program, but are actually defending it. Greenpeace's primary concern is not with the health threat posed to millions of Americans by unstable nuclear reactors 90 miles from our shores, but with heading off public demands for a preemptive U.S. airstrike against Cuba's ticking nuclear time-bomb. Even more revealing, Greenpeace and its anti-nuclear allies haven't even inspected the first nuclear construction project that they have ever endorsed, which happens to be located near the Soviet naval base at Cienfuegos.

       Our interview details the on-site observations of Vladmir Cervera, who served as top safety officer to the Cuban nuclear project for three years. A graduate of the Moscow Energy Institute, Cervera reports that shoddy workmanship, lack of skilled labor, and virtually non-existent quality control plague the project. It's unfortunate that the TV networks, when interviewing Mr. Cervera, failed to pass on some of his more chilling observations to viewers:

       Sentinel: In your expert opinion, what should be done with the Cienfuegos facility?

       Cervera: It should never be allowed to become operational. It is impossible for the plant to operate in compliance with International standards. It doesn't even meet low Soviet standards. It is a massive environmental threat and I hope the International Atomic Energy Agency insists it not be completed. Too much has been built to fix it, they should tear it down.

       S: Would you describe your job and the problems you saw?

       Cervera: I was in charge of final quality control of all the cooling pipes and tubing that went into the reactor chamber. What I saw, for instance, was that 20-25 percent of all pipes failed laser and ultrasound inspections because of cracks and other problems, and were installed anyway.

       S: They were installed with the defects?

       Cervera: Yes, and many parts were installed without inspections, such as the Soviet reactor turbines that arrived 'already certified.' If the plant was ever to become operational, the pipes would fail and the reactor would not be able to cool itself ... you know what happens then.

Chernobyl, which means wormwood, is mentioned in the Apocalypse, a melt down worse than the one at Chernobyl will soon be very possible and very close to us. It could be more devastating then the nuclear explosion pictured above.

       S: Who did you report the defects to?

       Cervera: To the plant managers and the Soviet technicians assigned to my division, but nothing was done. My written reports and test findings were taken away by Minint officials (Cuban secret police) and I never saw them again.

       S: What are the plant's working conditions?

       Cervera: The work is hard, food in Cuba is rationed, and teams are separated from their families for long periods. As a result, productivity is very low and many key workers are absent. There is no pride in workmanship or quality. Only 65 percent of the day is used productively. Workers do not care if they are installing faulty equipment.

       S: Are other [nuclear] facilities being built?

       Cervera: Yes, I have heard of a secret underground nuclear waste dumping facility, and two small nuclear research reactors close to Havana. Very few know of these projects.

       S: Are there non-civilian uses for the Cienfuegos nuclear plant?

       Cervera: Of course ... for one, 25 percent of the power output generated by the plant is intended exclusively for the Soviet submarine base at Cienfuegos. The base will have the capability to access all power generating capacity ... and secondly, Castro has always wanted a nuclear [weapons] potential that would guarantee him International respect.

       S: Has nuclear fuel been delivered, and how much is needed to energize the reactor?

       Cervera: They say that fuel has not been delivered, but who knows ... the Soviets agreed to deliver 70 pounds of enriched uranium (U.S. nuclear experts note that the Soviets delivered enriched uranium to Iraq for its reactor project and that 70 pounds is enough to build 4-5 "sloppy" bombs.)

Second Cuban Nuclear Scientist Issues
Warnings About Castro's Atomic Program

       Cuban scientist Jorge Oro, who defected in mid-April, sharply disagrees with Greenpeace's defense of the Cuban nuclear project. Oro, who served as director of the Cuban Center for Nuclear Investigations, reports that there exists a very low level of technological skill and organizational standards in major construction projects undertaken by socialist countries. Oro notes that Castro's secret nuclear waste dump is designed to store materials necessary to the development of atomic weapons, and as a shipping point to Third World countries with similar nuclear development programs, such as North Korea, Syria, and Libya. Even more disturbing, according to Oro, Castro's rickety nuclear reactors and waste dumps are located on an earthquake fault.

Castro Uses New Leverage to Win Kremlin Support of Nuclear Ambitions

       The collapse of Soviet intelligence operations in some Warsaw Pact countries has forced the Kremlin to rely more heavily on the services of Castro's secret police. According to the FBI, the KGB is aggressively recruiting Cuban agents to replace East German, Polish, and Czechoslovakian agents who until recently served as Moscow's surrogates. By offering to fill intelligence gaps with Cubans, Castro has strengthened his ties to elements within Moscow determined to blackmail the West into making substantial "bail-out" monies available. This helps to explain, perhaps, the appearance of supposedly-banned SS-20 nuclear attack missiles on Cuban soil. Consider related developments:

       In late May, KGB Chief Vladmir Kryuchkov made what the CIA says was a "highly unusual secret visit" to Cuba. (The KGB Chief rarely risks traveling outside the Soviet Union.) Kryuchkov's visit underscores the KGB's growing commitment to Castro's financial survival, including energy independence via nuclear power.

       On June 14, The Washington Times revealed that KGB Chief Kryuchkov's Cuban visit involved discussions on expanding the Soviet listening post at Lourdes (the largest outside the Soviet Union), the building of a second high-tech communications spy post near Havana, and "security" measures for Cuba's nuclear development program.

Why Anti-Nuclear Groups Defend
Castro's Unsafe Reactors

       With the growing body of evidence that socialist economies present a threat to the environment, anti-nuclear organizations with a hidden socialist agenda such as Greenpeace are trapped in a dilemma. If they attack substandard nuclear projects such as the one in Cuba, they are as much as admitting that central-planning represents a threat to the environment. More important, Greenpeace's strong opposition to U.S. nuclear power is rooted in its disarmament agenda: environmentalist groups understand that increased Western reliance on nuclear power — no matter how safe it is — provides the Defense Department with a pool of qualified engineers necessary to maintain our nuclear deterrent. As an enemy of the U.S., Cuba's nuclear program — no matter how unsafe — is acceptable to the anti-nuclear lobby.

       Action to Take: Millions of Americans are in harm's way of a Caribbean Chernobyl. Urge your Senators to press the White House to decisive action. Write to: Your Senators, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510.

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