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Fidel Castro Speaks with Cuban Scientists about Nuclear Threat.

CUBA,  August 24, 2010.-  The leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, met on Monday with Cuban scientists to speak about nuclear weapons and the dangers of a nuclear conflict. Fidel asked questions to the President of the Agency of Nuclear Energy and Advanced Technologies of the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, engineer Jose F. Santana Nuñez; the General Director of the Meteorology Institute, Dr. Tomas Gutierrez Perez; the head of the Office for Science and Technology of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, Col. Jose Luis Navarro Marrero; and Dr. Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, Scientific Adviser to the Council of State.

Some of the topics analyzed during the meeting were Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the bombs of uranium, plutonium and hydrogen; the nuclear weapons capability of the super powers; the area of radioactivity that a nuclear explosion can cause depending on the bomb’s power; and the sinking of a Russian nuclear submarine in 2000.

Fidel spoke of the days of the Missile Crisis in 1962, the process that led to the installation of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, and the mistakes of then presidents Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy.

Fidel said “Kennedy himself was horrified at how close the war was. We were not interested in having missiles or a base here. We worried about the image of the country. A Soviet base here would undermine the image of the Revolution and its influence in our region. Why did we accept it? It was very difficult for us but we did it for the sake of internationalism.”

Fidel pointed out how absurd it is that there are almost 25,000 nuclear weapons on the planet when only 100 (nuclear) explosions would be enough to cause a nuclear winter.

Fidel concluded by saying, “Everything depends on one man; not because he is powerful but because he is the only one that can pull the trigger. If he doesn’t do it, the whole world will be grateful, even the millionaires and even Israel.” (Cubaminrex-RHC)