Mustafa Akinci, candidate in the forthcoming presidential elections, has said that the construction of a nuclear power plant in Turkey’s Akkuyu area (Mersin) constitutes a great risk both for the people living in Turkey and the inhabitants of Cyprus, because it will be built in an area near to a fault line, ‘Kibris Postasi’ reports.
In a statement issued yesterday, Akinci noted that he is in favour of the use of renewable energy sources instead of being dependent on oil and recalled that some countries, such as Germany for example, are planning to stop using nuclear power plants after a certain period. Akinci reminded also of the tsunami that occurred in Japan and caused a leak from a nuclear power plant and many people lost their lives.
Meanwhile, Izzet Izcan, chairman of the United Cyprus Party (BKP), issued a statement yesterday asking for the TRNC government to undertake an initiative to stop the construction of the nuclear power plant in Akkuyu. Noting that all of Cyprus will be in “great danger” should the nuclear power plant be built there. Izcan said that an area of 300 kilometres could suffer a catastrophe as a result of a possible accident.
Underlining the threats to the environment by nuclear waste, Izcan called on all local and international environmental organisation to unite in a common struggle against this threat. He also reminded everyone about the accident at Fukushima power plant in Japan on 11 March 2011, and the price which Turkey had paid after the accident in Chernobyl in the 1980’s.
Turkish daily ‘Sabah’ (24.4.2014) reported that people on Turkey’s Black Sea coast say that, after the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown on April 26 1986, cancer cases boomed and the incidence of goitre increased considerably.
