AKKUYU POWER PLANT NEWS CLIPS FROM THE MEDIA

In part, her objection was based on Turkey's poor credit rating, as well as the fact that it could further unbalance the political situation in the region. Ms. McDonough said Turkey is a poor candidate for nuclear technology -- with a poor human rights record, a ``virtual state of war'' with its Kurdish minority, and a long-standing dispute with Greece over Cyprus.

``The sale of civilian nuclear technology can be perverted,'' she said, alluding to recent nuclear explosions by India and Pakistan, presumably using fissionable material from Candu reactors.

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. is negotiating with Turkey for purchase of the two reactors for $4 billion. The federal government would give a $1.5-billion loan guarantee, and members of the consortium building the reactor would arrange loan of the remaining $2.5-billion to Turkey.

She criticized the federal government for not requiring a full environmental assessment at the proposed nuclear power station site at Akkuyu Bay, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. On June 27, an earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale hit Adana, a town 180 km from Akkuyu Bay.

Ms. McDonough left discussion of the earthquake threat to Karl Buckthought, president of Ottawa-based Earthquake Enterprises Inc.

``Turkey is notorious for being one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world,'' Mr. Buckthought said, adding that a major earthquake has occurred in Turkey every four years on average. Moreover, Akkuyu Bay is on a fault that makes it particularly susceptible to earthquakes, he said. In 1993, Turkish seismologist Semih Yuceman of the Middle East Technical University in Ankara published a report which claimed that quakes of magnitude greater than 8.0 on the Richter scale are possible in the Akkuyu Bay region.

The AECL is designing the reactor to withstand a 6.5 Richter earthquake, which is far weaker than an 8 Richter event, he said. And he doubted the design could withstand a nearby earthquake even of that significantly lower magnitude.

``I just can't understand how AECL can be so wrong,'' he said. Turkish seismologist and University professor Atilla Ulug told the Citizen yesterday that Akkuyu Bay was a dangerous site for a nuclear power plant. ``In my opinion this is not a good place -- in fact, the whole area is dangerous.''

Contradicting Mr. Buckthought, the Turkish seismologist said the fault does not run underneath Akkuyu Bay but is only 20 km away, active, and dangerous. ``To go ahead and build a reactor there without further study would be irresponsible,'' he said.

If a reactor had to be sited in Turkey, he preferred a location near the Bulgarian border, where seismic activity is significantly lower, he said. A seismologist at the University of Keele in England said Akkuyu Bay, while not ideal, still might be one of the better reactor sites in Turkey.

``I can think of many sites on which you would definitely not want to build, but this is certainly not one of those,'' said Gilbert Kelling, who has done extensive seismic research in southern Turkey, though none at Akkuyu Bay specifically.

The nearest major earthquakes have had epicentres at least 60 km away, he said. He cautioned that the limestone bedrock underlying Akkuyu Bay might be susceptible to sudden collapse. The bedrock often contains large cavities which, under the weight of a large engineering project,
could cave in.

``But intrinsically, I don't know of any positive risk at Akkuyu Bay,'' Mr. Kelling said in summary. ``Of course, a very thorough assessment of all the hazards would be needed before moving ahead with construction of a reactor.''

*** END OF DOCUMENT ***

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AFP
June 29, 1998

Turkey pressed to abandon nuclear plant project after quake by Ceyhun Erguven

In the next two months the government is expected to announce the results of international bidding for a plant to be built in Akkuyu in the Mersin area, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of the quake-hit region of Adana. A new toll on Monday said that 116 people were killed and 1,500 injured in the quake, which measured a strong 6.3 on the open-ended Richter scale and shook not only Adana province but neighboring areas including Mersin. It was also felt in Cyprus.

"Today it is definitely known that the Ecemis fault line runs 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the location of the Akkuyu plant," said Kamer Gulbeyaz, who heads an association of engineers in Mersin. "The risks of a radioactive leak would be high in the event of a quake, even of minimal magnitude. If we want to avoid a total nuclear catastrophe, we must abandon the project," he warned.

Melda Keskin, spokeswoman for the Turkish branch of the Greenpeace environmental organization, told AFP that "the earthquake confirms the danger we have been warning of for years." The site was licensed for the plant by the Turkish authorities as early as 1976, Keskin said. "The fault line was only discovered years later and thus not taken into account for the license."

Reports prepared in the 1970s considered Mersin among the safest seismic areas in Turkey, but studies carried out in 1991 stressed that the Ecemis fault line, around 20 kilometers east of the plant site, is active. Professor Tolga Yarman, one of the three scientists who had granted the license for the plant, called for a review. "In light of recent scientific data, we must check again if the location for the future plant is safe or not. If necessary, we must reconsider the decision to build it," he added. Leziz Onaran, chairman of the Turkish association of doctors for peace and the environment, said: "This warning from nature must be taken seriously."

In February, Ulrich Fischer, the president of the Franco-German consortium Nuclear Power International (NPI), one of the three groups bidding for the project, said he would live in the area of the plant. "I am ready to build the home where I will spend my retirement right near the Akkuyu nuclear plant," he said. "The Turkish authorities told us the region is safe for building the plant."

*** END OF DOCUMENT ***

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Reuters
July 10, 1998

Greenpeace urges seismic study of Turk atomic site

"Only a deep-sea seismological study could determine what the status of the Ecemis fault line is and this hasn't been done," said Greenpeace's Turkey representative Melda Keskin. "Nobody is responding to these concerns," she told Reuters. Energy Minister Cumhur Ersumer said that seismic studies show that the Akkuyu area is not an earthquake zone. Supporters of the plant say there may be a fault line nearby, but it is not active.

Ersumer vowed that the project would be concluded. "As the government, we are going to see the nuclear plant tender through to its conclusion," Ersumer told Reuters in an interview. Turkey's state power producer TEAS has said it aims to announce the winning bid for the country's first nuclear plant in Akkuyu later this month.

Public fears over the site's safety were raised after a major earthquake in nearby Adana on June 27 killed more than 140 people. Greenpeace says a team of scientists had accidentally discovered the Ecemis fault line about 25 km (15 miles) from Akkuyu in 1991 and believed it to be active. Three consortia have put in bids for the plant, scheduled to be completed in 2006.

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Reuters
July 10, 1998

Turkey to pursue nuclear plant despite quake fear
By Orhan Coskun

Ersumer said warnings that the proposed plant would be in danger from future tremors were unfounded. "These allegations are speculations put out by anti-nuclear groups," Ersumer said. "Seismic studies undertaken in the Akkuyu region have shown that it is not in any earthquake zone," he said. The epicentre of the quake, which killed more than 140 people, was about 70 km (44 miles) northeast of Akkuyu Bay.

Turkey's state power producer TEAS has said it aims to announce the tender results for Akkuyu by the end of this month. Ersumer said that he was fully confident the tender for the plant would be finalised. "They will not be able to stop this process...it is 100 percent certain that we will conclude it," Ersumer said. He also said the foundation for the plant would be laid this year, earlier than the original target of January 1999.

Three consortia have put in bids for the plant, scheduled to be completed in 2006. A consortium led by NPI (Nuclear Power International) -- a French-German group including Siemens, Framatome, Campenon Bernard, Hochtief, Turkey's Garanti-Koza, Simko, STFA and Tekfen -- gave the lowest bid in the tender. Its bid for unit cost of electricity production for the first alternative, which will cost $2.393 billion and have a net power capacity of 1,482 Megawatts (MW), is 2.56 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh).

NPI's second alternative is a 2,964-MW, 44.48 billion plant which will produce electricity at a unit cost of 2.28 cents/kWh. Another consortium led by Canadian AECL offered 3.3 cents/kWh for a 1,339-MW pant that will have a price tag of $2.572 billion, and 3.1 cents/kWh for a 2,678-MW plant.

The AECL-led consortium comprises Kvaerner John Brown, Hitachi and Turkey's Guris, Gama and Bayindir. A consortium led by U.S. Westinghouse and including Mitsubishi, Raytheon and Turkey's Enka gave 3.35 cents/kWh for a 1,218-MW plant to cost $3.279 million. All bids are on a turn-key basis and the builders would fully finance the project. Under the terms of the tender, Turkish companies in the winning consortium will carry out all construction work while their foreign partners will be responsible for the plant's technical make-up.

Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, who has headed a right-left minority coalition since last June, has announced plans to form an interim government by the end of the year to take Turkey to early elections next April.

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The Independent - London Page 17
July 10, 1998

News Earthquake stirs fears for Turkish nuclear reactor
Justin Huggler in Istanbul 07/10/98

Greenpeace opposed the construction of the plant from the start five years ago, saying it would be at risk from tremors. It claims the latest disaster has confirmed their worst fears, and is calling on Turkey to suspend the project immediately. The organisation says the risk posed by earthquakes in the region has not been investigated. It claims between 1871 and 1975 there were more than 50 quakes within a 200km radius of Akkuyu, and a quake with a magnitude of more than eight on the Richter scale is possible in the region. The last quake had a magnitude of six.

The government insists Greenpeace is being alarmist. "The design is such that the reactor could take a head-on impact from a 747 jet," said Professor Mustafa Erik, head of earthquake engineering at Istanbul University. "It can be shut down safely even if an earthquake with a magnitude of six occurs directly beneath the reactor," he insisted.

"With earthquakes, location is as important as magnitude. The risk of bigger quakes than that comes only from faults some distance from Akkuyu." The problem is no one can agree on where these "faults" lie. Professor Erik says the active Ecemis fault line is 140km from Akkuyu; Greenpeace thinks it is only 25km away. The earthquake row is one of several problems the planned reactor has encountered. It has also met strong local opposition. Local environmentalists recently lost a court battle to stop the project which they said threatened the environment.

The council in the nearby town of Silifke says local people are scared the reactor will endanger their health. The council claims the reactor will wreck attempts to develop tourism. Ankara plans to build 10 reactors by the year 2020, claiming the fast-growing Turkish economy needs them to supply its energy needs. At the moment, Turkey suffers badly from power cuts in big cities.

Greenpeace insists at least 30 per cent of Turkey's energy is lost through inefficient distribution, and that the government has yet to look at alternative energy sources. Three consortiums are bidding to build the reactor: one headed by the Canadian firm AECL, one by the US firm Westinghouse and one by Siemens in Germany. The AECL group includes the British company Kvaerner-John Brown.

Turkish green groups suspect Western companies are off-loading on to Turkey technology which they don't want. Ankara is "putting the profits of multinationals ahead of the Turkish people", Melda Keskiu of Istanbul Greenpeace said. Professor Erik said the new reactor is the least of Turkey's worries: "There's much more danger from the old Soviet reactor near our border with Armenia. We ought to concentrate more on the number of cigarettes we smoke."

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Nuclear Awareness Project
P.O. Box 104
Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada L9P 1M6

Tel/Fax 905-852-0571
E-mail: nucaware@web.net
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