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By Andrea Sophocleous
CYPRUS will be "massively affected" in the event of an accident at the
proposed Turkish nuclear reactor at Akkuyu Bay, only 250 km from
Nicosia.
And there is little Cyprus can do apart from raise international
concern.
This was the message from Greenpeace Mediterranean chief Dr Mario Damato
at
yesterday's launch in Nicosia of a computer modelling study showing that
a
major accident at the Akkuyu reactor would be catastrophic for Turkey,
Cyprus and the entire Middle East.
"Cyprus is in the centre of it all," Damato said. Irrespective of the
direction of air masses that will determine the impact on other
surrounding
countries, Cyprus will suffer maximum damage.
The study comes 12 years after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear
reactor in Ukraine which forced the evacuation of 400,000 people and
ultimately killed thousands. It shows that apart from Cyprus, all Middle
Eastern countries face a substantial risk and western Europe a lower
risk.
The Greenpeace director said radioactive fallout in the event of an
accident was not the only danger. Radioactive contamination would be a
constant problem for Cyprus and the Middle East throughout the nuclear
plant's operation.
The Akkuyu reactor will be the first of seven or ten reactors that
Turkey
plans to build by the year 2000. Damato said Greenpeace had been
monitoring
Turkey's nuclear plans for five years now and had been the first
organisation to announce the Akkuyu plans.
The Akkuyu area is particularly unsafe for a nuclear reactor because it
is
prone to seismic activity -- there have been two major earthquakes in
the
region this century.
According to Damato, construction work on the reactor is already under
way,
despite environmental pressure on Ankara to abandon its plans. He said
the
Turkish government was determined to go ahead with the reactor and was
due
to announce in June which consortium had won the tender to build the
plant.
Two companies are competing for the project, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd
and Siemens of Germany.
Damato said his organisation may be able to challenge the legality of
the
Canadian bid because the Canadian government has offered a $1.5 billion
loan to Turkey to fund the nuclear project in an attempt to win the
contract.
The Canadian government, however, cannot grant funding to such a
programme
before an environmental assessment is carried out. No such assessment
was
commissioned by Canada before its loan offer and an impact study would
have
judged Akkuyu an inappropriate site for a nuclear power plant, Damato
said.
Greenpeace has adopted a three-pronged approach in its campaign against
the
nuclear reactor. It is already trying to raise the awareness of the
Turkish
public, lobbying the Turkish government and putting pressure on the two
companies involved in the bidding for the project.
Damato said the campaign directed at Turks living in the Akkuyu area was
going well because "people are very concerned by what they see as a real
threat to them".
The Turkish government, however, "is not listening to anybody".
Greenpeace's push for a referendum on the issue to be held in the area
presents problems because there is no mechanism for referendums in
Turkey.
Putting pressure on the Canadian and German companies vying for the
nuclear
contract may prove difficult at a time when the market for nuclear power
is
shrinking in the West and the only avenue for such companies is
underdeveloped countries like Turkey.
Even so, Greenpeace intends to use its international resources and
contacts
to put pressure on the companies.
In response to a question about India's shock announcement on Monday
that
it had conducted three underground nuclear tests, Damato said a nuclear
reactor gave a country the means to conduct nuclear tests and that this
was
probably on Turkey's agenda.
Despite the grim outlook, Damato was confident of his organisation's ability to stop the Akkuyu and other Turkish nuclear projects, saying Greenpeace had been successful in stopping reactors in the past.
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