§ 6041 — Withholding Of Foreign Assistance From Countries Supporting Juragua Nuclear Plant In Cuba

(a) The Congress makes the following findings: (1) President Clinton stated in April 1993 that the United States opposed the construction of the Juragua nuclear power plant because of the concerns of the United States about Cuba’s ability to ensure the safe operation of the facility and because 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 that he would unleash another perilous mass migration from Cuba upon the enactment of this chapter. (11) Despite the various concerns about the plant’s safety and operational problems, a feasibility study is being conducted that would establish a support group to include Russia, Cuba, and third countries with the objective of completing and operating the plant. (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the President shall withhold from assistance allocated, on or after March 12, 1996, for any country an amount equal to the sum of assistance and credits, if any, provided on or after March 12, 1996, by that country or any entity in that country in support of the completion of the Cuban nuclear facility at Juragua, near Cienfuegos, Cuba. (2) The requirement of paragraph (1) to withhold assistance shall not apply with respect to— (A) assistance to meet urgent humanitarian needs, including disaster and refugee relief; (B) democratic political reform or rule of law activities; (C) the creation of private sector or nongovernmental organizations that are independent of government control; (D) the development of a free market economic system; (E) assistance for the purposes described in the Cooperative Threat Reduction Act of 1993 (title XII of Public Law 103–160) [22 U.S.C. 5951 et seq.]; or (F) assistance under the secondary school exchange program administered by the United States Information Agency. (3) As used in paragraph (1), the term “assistance” means assistance under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 [22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.], credits, sales, guarantees of extensions of credit, and other assistance under the Arms Export Control Act [22 U.S.C. 2751 et seq.], assistance under titles I and III of the Food for Peace Act [7 U.S.C. 1701 et seq., 1727 et seq.], assistance under the FREEDOM Support Act, and any other program of assistance or credits provided by the United States to other countries under other provisions of law.