Angeline Garcia

Houston Academy for International Studies

2017, January 31
Cuba
IAEA: International Atomic Energy Agency
The Politics and the Management of Radioactive Waste
The Republic of Cuba itself consists of one large island and a few smaller ones that are located
along the northern rim of the Caribbean Sea. This is located around 100 miles south of Florida
and is measured to about 110,860 sq. km. Comparing to Pennsylvania Cuba is slightly smaller
then it. Cuba is known for its beauty and nature. It is sometimes referred to as the Pearl of
Antilles because of this. The coastline is marked by bays and reefs. We tend to see along the
southern coast a long stretch of swamps and lowlands. A famous swamp that is located here is
the Great Zapata Swamp. The remainder of the land is known to be hilly and filled with
mountains.
The Cuban government formed several agencies to help protect their environment. The different
agencies include The National Parks Service, The National Commission of Environmental
Protection and Rational Use of Natural Resources, The National Environmental Education
Program, The Academy of Sciences of Cuba, and The National Commission for the Protection of
the Environment and for Conservation of Natural Resources. In 2003, about 69% of the land was
protected by the government. There are two natural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and six
Ramseur wetland sites.
As far as what the International Atomic Energy Agency is, it is widely known as the Atoms for
Peace. This organization within the United Nations (UN) family, the IAEA is the international
center for cooperation in the nuclear field. Overall the people work with the member states and
multiple partners around the world to help promote a safer, more secure, and overall peaceful use
of nuclear technologies.
The IAEA was first created in the year of 1957 as a response to the deep fears and overall
expectations generated by the findings and diverse uses of for nuclear technology. Radioactive
waste mainly is known to be dangerous for causing large health problems if it isnt properly
managed. It can end up destroying the environment if it isnt stored properly or recycled. Due to
the large variety of radioactive materials, there are many possible venues for managing the
waste. Radioactive waste is classified into different categories being, exempt waste/ very low
level waste, low level waste, intermediate level waste, and high level waste. Each of those types
can be disposed in different ways. Before attempting to decipher the different ways of managing
the radioactive waste, we should understand that nuclear wastes arent particularly hazardous nor
hard to manage relative to other toxic industrial wastes. Safe methods for the final disposal of
high-level radioactive waste are proven and should be geologically disposed.
Overall to conclude the standing of the country of Cuba, we believe that managing these
different forms of radioactive waste may not be too much of a challenge to accomplish. We
believe that if we incorporate mining and milling, conversion, enrichment, fuel fabrication,
electricity generation, and recycling used fuel into the plan we could successfully begin to
manage radioactive waste.