127 



period, with a comprehensive series of reports on this 

 multi-faceted problem. 



Other similar issues that are the subject of ongoing 

 analytic work include: ocean dumping of hazardous substances; 

 water scarcity and degradation; the environmental consequences of 

 narcotics cultivation; the impact of earthquakes and other 

 natural disasters; food shortages and agricultural resource 

 decline; and the pressures faced by developing and industrialized 

 coxintries alike as they grapple with the costs of environmental 

 protection. While some of these projects have been started 

 within the past several years, many go back a long way. Our work 

 on agriculture, for example, has been ongoing for decades. 



A related subject for intelligence is monitoring the nuclear 

 power programs in countries of concern. This is not a new issue 



for intelligence. And this brings me to the second and primary 

 part of my presentation — possible environmental threats arising 

 from past Soviet nuclear activities, CIA has kept an eye on the 

 Soviet nuclear power progreun since the startup of their first 

 small prototype power reactor in 1954. In the years that 

 followed, we compiled an extensive collection of technical 

 literature on the program and on the reactors themselves. CIA 

 integrates this data with information acquired from our 



6 



