[Marxism] Russia, Cuba agree to renew joint nuclear research

[nada]

I was very heartened to see this occur between Russia and Cuba.

I'd be interested, from the Cuban POV, what their specific motivation is 
for this, outside of generalized knowledge of nuclear physics and 
engineering, which is sort of intrinsically worthwhile...

Speculating (which we do here on this list often enough) I would 
summarize the following.

Cuba has been developing it's offshore oil resources for some time and 
along with potential reserves, oil has also been flowing. I believe 
enough to slightly reduce the subsidized oil it gets from Venezuela. 
Oil, if you've been following Cuba's energy development, provides most 
of this nation's electrical generation. And it's fuel for transportation.


Cuba's energy grid, always under attack by hurricanes, and, anemic from 
a generation POV, needs a huge increase in capacity. Blackouts, I 
understand, as still regular there. Black outs cause huge expenses. Your 
electrical equipment needs either real good backup for things like 
computers and medical equipment, or extremely rugged and expensive 
appliances to allow for power surges.

Burning oil is, in the era of "peak oil", for electrical generation (or 
driving cars) is hugely expensive. Cuba probably is looking at the 
U.A.Es, Iran, and other middle eastern countries who are energy rich but 
don't want to use this form of energy for their own electrical 
generation but would rather export it. Doing so involves building 
nuclear power plants, which both countries, and many others, are 
starting to do.

I suspect Cuba *might* be interested in restarting the building of a 
nuclear plant or plants because they are very reliable, costs, wastes 
and other issues notwithstanding. This way they can devote more of the 
oil they are drilling for offshore to export and vehicular transportation.

David