TURKEY LEAVES INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR LOBBY IN THE DARK
Greenpeace calls for the country’s potential in energy efficiency and renewables to be realised

25 July 2000

ISTANBUL -- The Turkish government’s decision to cancel the Akkuyu nuclear tender was today welcomed by the anti-nuclear organisation, Greenpeace, as a sign that Turkey is finally acknowledging the burden of becoming the nuclear waste bin for developed countries. (1)

After eight years opposing the nuclear lobby in Turkey, Greenpeace said that Turkey’s billion-dollar nuclear investment plans have been a huge obstacle in delaying the adoption of clean, safe energy technologies in the country.

Greenpeace Mediterranean energy campaigner Melda Keskin said, "In thirty-five years and three international tenders, the nuclear lobby did not succeed in dragging Turkey into the nuclear trap, in spite of the full cooperation of energy officials such as Energy Minister Cumhur Ersumer. They must be held accountable for the time and money Turkey has lost in all the years it has been blinded by the nuclear propaganda. TEAS (the Turkish Utility) must immediately start working towards shifting plans focused on nuclear energy and fossil fuels to ones that would really exploit the country’s potential in energy efficiency and renewables."

The Akkuyu nuclear power plant project is the perfect example of the efforts being made to transfer hazardous and polluting technologies from industrialised countries to developing countries. Greenpeace condemned the double standards shown by the international nuclear companies which were forced to succumb to anti-nuclear public pressure in their own countries and instead turned to foist their unwanted nuclear reactors onto an unwilling Turkish public through political pressure.(2).

"Globally, nuclear power has proved itself to be destructive, dirty and expensive. Over the past eight years we have conclusively proved to Turkish officials that nuclear power is unsustainable, creating lethal radioactive waste. Nuclear energy is a polluting technology plagued by technical and economical problems," said Keskin. Approximately 30% of the electricity generated in Turkey is lost in transmission and distribution. Greenpeace said that the country’s energy problems could be solved through basic energy efficiency and conservation measures. Future energy needs could then be met through the implementation of measures that would utilise the country’s abundant reserves of solar, wind and geothermal energy. The potential of wind energy in Turkey is considered to be the best in Europe at 83,000 MW, resulting in 166 billion kWh/year, way in excess of the country's present electricity consumption. Dr. Tanay Sidki Uyar of the University of Kocaeli, reports that 10,000 MWs of wind capacity could be installed in Turkey by the year 2010, producing more than twice the electricity that could be produced by the planned reactors. Moreover, wind projects can be completed within one or two years rather than the ten years needed for reactors.

"We will continue our energy campaign for a safe energy future in Turkey. The country’s resources must be redirected to phase-in energy efficiency and renewables," concluded Keskin.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Melda Keskin, in Istanbul, +90 212 2927619/20 or +90 532 3243204 (mobile);
- Caroline Muscat, Greenpeace Mediterranean Media Coordinator in Malta, +356 942 9964 (mobile).

(1) After the Council of Ministers’ meeting held today in Ankara, Prime Minister Ecevit announced that the Akkuyu nuclear tender is cancelled.

(2) Greenpeace Mediterranean and the Buyukeceli Municipality organised an unofficial local referendum in July 1999 with 84% voting 'No' to nuclear reactors and radioactive waste storage in Akkuyu. In 1993 an anti-nuclear petition with 170,000 signatures was presented by the Turkish Anti-Nuclear Platform to the Head of the Turkish Parliament Husamettin Cindoruk. At a press conference in front of the Ministry of Energy yesterday, anti-nuclear groups including Greenpeace held a long streamer made up of the tens of thousands of new anti-nuclear signatures collected in Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara and Mersin recently.