Help me understand this narrative, PM

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I am writing this open letter to the Office of the Prime Minister and The University of the West Indies.

2020: Sources at the University of the West Indies (UWI), the Office of the Prime Minister, and Jamaica’s energy ministry begin to promote a narrative that SLOWPOKE-2, a small nuclear research reactor located within the UWI Mona’s Department of Chemistry, is “the first nuclear reactor in the Caribbean.” But ...

1983: TRIGA Mark II, a nuclear reactor, was commissioned and has been continuously operational in Havana, Cuba.

1968: Another reactor, IRR-1, was commissioned and has been continuously operational in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic.

1965: BONUS, a 50-megawatt (thermal) nuclear power reactor, became operational in Puerto Rico, predating the UWI Mona’s SLOWPOKE-2 reactor.

1969-1970: BONUS was decommissioned and entombed due to “insurmountable safety and technical issues,” according to US authorities. Following this Puerto Rico banned nuclear power anywhere on the archipelago.

1992: Cuba, at President Fidel Castro’s direction, abandoned late-stage completion of two 440-megawatt nuclear power reactors at Jaragua Nuclear Complex, Cienfuegos, which is 224 miles from Port Antonio.

2020: Ahead of that year’s gubernatorial election, nearly every candidate came out against nuclear energy for Puerto Rico.

2017: Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico’s electrical grid, initiating years of restoration and redesign aimed at creating a more resilient and efficient power infrastructure.

2017-2020: Puerto Rico’s efforts to reconstruct and enhance its grid continued. Motivated by climate-change concerns, it was mandated that by 2050, one hundred per cent of its grid electricity would be generated from renewables.

2024 (October): The US Department of Energy issued a fact sheet on BONUS, officially accessible at: https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2020/05/f74/BONUSFactSheet.pdf.

Here in Jamaica:

2021: Reports emerged that Michael Lee-Chin, a Jamaican-Canadian businessman is promoting small modular reactors (SMRs) as part of Jamaica’s future energy mix. Does he have known competence?

2022: At a business expo the PM announced plans to introduce nuclear power to the country in a significant way as part of Jamaica’s energy mix.

2022 (COP28, Qatar): Jamaica voted to pursue ‘clean nuclear energy’. Notably, Jamaica is the only delegation from Latin America or the Caribbean to take this stance at the end of COP28.

2024: Jamaica signed a MOU with Canadian entities to officially initiate nuclear power development in Jamaica.

2024: The Scientific Research Council of Jamaica held its 31st annual conference, focusing on nuclear energy applications.

What is the rationale? Could cock mouth create more wealth at Jamaicans’ expense?

DENNIS MINOTT