PRESS RELEASE

23 July 1998

GERMANY'S SIEMENS MISLEADING TURKISH OFFICIALS, PUBLIC OPINION

Istanbul, 23 July 1998 - The Greenpeace Mediterranean Office today charged that a representative of the German company Siemens has mislead Turkish officials and public opinion by claiming that nuclear power is cheap and safe.

Ulrich Fischer from Siemens claimed during a press conference yesterday that hydroelectric power is more dangerous that nuclear power. A consortium of Siemens and France's Framatome, Nuclear Power International, is desperately trying to sell Turkey a nuclear power plant to be built in Akkuyu Bay along the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, Turkish police last night freed nine Greenpeace activists who were detained for protesting against a Siemens press conference promoting nuclear power in Turkey. The activists have held outside the conference room a banner in German and Turkish which read: "Nuclear Salesmen Not Welcome - Greenpeace" (in German: Nuklearhausierer Nicht Erwuenscht). They were released after spending seven hours in jail.

"Mr. Fischer from Siemens spreads half-truths and sometimes even bluntly lies in a public relations offensive aimed at promoting nuclear power," said Melda Keskin, Energy Campaigner of Greenpeace Mediterranean.

"He did not even mention the worst nuclear accident in history, the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. He also did not speak of the numerous accidents in German nuclear plants that nearly lead to similar disasters," she said. Keskin was one of the nine detained activists.

The Siemens representative reported about his company building several nuclear reactors in South America, including the Atucha 2 plant in Argentina. But he forgot to mention that this plant is still not operating - 19 years after it was ordered from the Siemens sub-company KWU.

Mr. Fischer also downplayed the problem of nuclear waste disposal and storage. Mr. Arno Hornfeld of Siemens' sub-company Turkish Siemens (SIMKO) suggested yesterday that nuclear waste could be stored under Turkey's Taurus Mountains near the Mediterranean coast. He totally ignored that this area is an active earthquake zone. (1)

Potential dangers posed by earthquakes to nuclear installations was recently highlighted by a Court decision in Germany, where the Muelheim-Kaerlich reactor was closed because the risk had not been properly investigated and had been possibly underestimated. The license for this power plant was revoked on 13 January this year after a ten-year legal battle. The plant will remain an industrial ruin. It was 22 years old and it could only operate less than one year (11 months).

"The most unbelievable argument came from Mr. Fischer who claimed that Siemens nuclear plants could live up to 100 years. The truth is that the average lifetime of nuclear plant is 40 years. In Canada, the average life span is even 25 years," Keskin said.

The Turkish utility company TEAS said it would decide next August who will construct Turkey's first nuclear power plant. The bids were submitted to TEAS on the 15th of October 1997.

"Greenpeace opposes the construction of nuclear power plants anywhere in the world. The Turkish government must diversify its electricity sources and introduce alternative energies like wind, solar and biomass - and not a dangerous outdated and polluting energy like the nuclear one," Keskin concluded.

For more information please contact Melda Keskin at 0090-212-2364238; or Executive Director Dr. Mario Damato in Malta on 00356-650643. Emails: mkeskin@diala.greenpeace.org; gpmedite@diala.greenpeace.org Greenpeace on the Internet: www.greenpeace.org

Note:

1. Akkuyu Bay, the proposed site of Turkey's first nuclear power reactor, would be next to an active fault line in an area of seismic activity. This was the finding of a 1991 report by a team of Turkish marine geophysicists and a British geologist, who concluded that the Ecemis fault runs 20-25 km southeast of Akkuyu Bay and is active. These data dismiss claims by TEAS as well as the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEK), that the Ecemis fault is inactive.

The Greenpeace warning coincided with devastating earthquake hit the southeastern Turkish provinces above the active Anatolian fault on June 27. More than 130 people were killed in villages and cities like Ceyhan and Adana. The epicentre of the quake was about 170 kilometres northeast of Akkuyu Bay. Last May, Greenpeace released a computer modelling study showing that a major accident at the proposed Turkish reactor site would be catastrophic not only for Turkey, but also for the entire Middle East. The study predicts how, in case of accident, contamination would spread.

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