Canada - Turkey - Nuclear reactors

"The results of the geological and seismological investigation were reviewed by the International Atomic Agency and found to satisfy international and Canadian siting criteria for the safety of nuclear power plants," an official with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, told CNA.

Dexter Bishop said the site, Akkuyu Bay, is located in a remote area in the southern portion of Turkey and is licensed by the Turkish authorities for a nuclear power plant.
"Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has said that a CANDU 6 reactor would withstand any of the earthquakes occurring in Turkey for the past 100 years, " he said.

But Karl Buckthought, President of Ottawa-based Earthquake Enterprises Inc. has said otherwise. Quoted in the Ottawa Citizen, Buckthought said Akkuyu Bay is on a fault that makes it particularly susceptible to earthquakes.
"Turkey is notorious for being one of the most earthquake prone countries in the world," he said, adding that a major earthquake has occurred in Turkey every four years on average.

An earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale hit the Turkish town of Adana on June 27, leaving hundreds dead and injured. Adana, on the southern coast of Turkey, is 180 km from Akkuyu Bay.

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.

Buckthought said AECL is designing the reactor to withstand a 6.5 Richter earthquake, which is far weaker than an 8 Richter event. He also doubted the design could withstand a nearby earthquake even if it was of a significantly lower magnitude.

AECL is negotiating with Turkey to sell two reactors for Canadian $4 billion. The bid is backed by a Canadian $1.5 billion loan guarantee from the federal government. A European and an American company are also vying for the contract.

Bishop said it is expected Turkey will announce the preferred bidder in August, with contract negotiations to follow later in the year.

Asked why Canada is bidding to sell nuclear technology to a country with such a poor human rights record, Bishop skirted the issue, saying only that Turkey is a NATO ally, has "a very close relationship" with the European Union and that it is an emerging economy for Canadian exporters.

Last week, federal New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Alexa McDonough blasted the government for pursuing its reactor sale bid to Turkey, saying that Canada must withdraw its financial support for the potential sale. "It is time the Liberal government rediscovered their lapsed moral convictions and withdrew their financial backing for this ill-fated project, " she said.

McDonough said Turkey is a poor candidate for nuclear technology because of its poor human rights record, a "virtual state of war" with its Kurdish minority and a long-standing dispute with Greece over Cyprus.

Alluding to the India's and Pakistan's recent nuclear explosions presumably using spent fuel from CANDU reactors, the federal NDP leader said the sale of civilian nuclear technology "can be perverted". But Turkey is not hiding the fact that it wants to develop a nuclear bomb.

In its annual report submitted last month to the Turkish National Assembly, the Turkish National Assembly said nuclear technology "makes our country honourable and strong, because nuclear technology consists of strategic and economic components". The word "strategic" can often be a code word referring to military strength.

Bishop dismissed the possibility that Turkey wants to develop nuclear weapons, by saying that it has become party to the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and accepted fullscope International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.
"This means that Turkey has made the commitment not to manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices," he said.

S-CNA MH/GP/1998
ENDS, SOUTHERN CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY