Turkey goes ahead on nuclear plans as experts warn

Turkey will not suspend its nuclear projects despite unprecedented damage to Japanese nuclear reactors following its catastrophic earthquake and Turkey’s own seismic vulnerability, according to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"There is no investment without risk," Erdogan told reporters on Tuesday as he summarized his government’s policy on nuclear energy. His words come as Germany has decided to take seven of its 17 nuclear reactors offline temporarily for a comprehensive safety check.

Laughing off concerns that are rising globally, Erdogan said that if people wanted a no-risk environment, they should "not build crude oil lines in their country and not use gas in their kitchens."

"We have to know that aside from its beautiful aspects, the modern world has many troubles," he said. "There are, for example, issues related to cosmetics. Yet nobody gives them up."

Experts, however, have been warning that the technology Russia has proposed for the planned nuclear power plant in Akkuyu in the southern province of Mersin has not been tested yet.

Noting the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine, Osman Kemal Kadiroglu, the former head of the Nuclear Engineering Department of Hacettepe University, said Turkey was buying nuclear technology from a country that had no credibility.

"This is true even if the technology of the Akkuyu nuclear plant will be different than that of Chernobyl," he said on Tuesday.

Following the threat of a nuclear meltdown in Japan, many nations expressed doubts over the establishment of new nuclear power plants – except, notably, Turkey.


Turkey has made safety "a priority" for the Mediterranean plant, while both planned plants – the second one in Sinop, in the Black Sea region – would use new, third-generation reactors, Energy Minister Taner Yıldız told NTV news channel on Monday. Erdogan will request that Russia increase its safety standards for the Akkuyu plant should that be necessary, Yıldız said, who accompanied Erdogan on a visit to Moscow on Tuesday.

"We have no idea which reactors will be used for the plants in Turkey. We learn about them from the press, since nobody has asked us for advice," said Kadirogu, one of the few nuclear energy experts in Turkey. He said countries that have made serious nuclear investments such as the United States have set up teams of experts to ask for advice.

The Chamber of Electrical Engineers said in a statement Monday that the Akkuyu plant would be built 25 kilometers from an active fault line in the region.

The government should consider its decision on nuclear plants and cancel the deal with Russia on Akkuyu, said Hediye Gündüz from the Climate Union for the Mediterranean. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Gündüz said the Akkuyu plant would be built near the Ecemiş fault line.

Turkey has agreed with Russia's Rosatom and signed a contract in May to build its first nuclear plant, which will have four reactors. The licensing process for the plant, which will cost about $20 billion, has already begun.

The government is also holding talks on the planned Sinop plant. Before the Japanese earthquake, Japanese companies seemed to be ahead on a possible decision. Turkey and Japan signed a memorandum on civil nuclear cooperation in December.

Turkey is crisscrossed by geological fault lines and small earthquakes occur. In 1999, two huge temblors in the industrialized Marmara Region took more than 20,000 lives, causing massive damage.


/Hurriyet Daily News/