Nuclear companies gamble on future of Turkey
Posted by meb at February 20th, 2008
Greenpeace Turkey called on the government to give up gambling on the country’s future by launching nuclear stations, in a written statement yesterday.
The government not only makes legal processes that encourage nuclear energy but will also call on the nuclear companies to make an offer in the bid, the campaigning organization said.
Greenpeace members, representing international companies who sell nuclear reactors such as French Areva, American GE and Russian Atomstroyexport, imitate gamblers playing on the Turkish map.
“Gambling is illegal in Turkey, but the government lets the nuclear industry gamble on the country,” said Hilal Atıcı, an energy expert with Greenpeace Turkey.
Nuclear energy is losing its status in the world because it is expensive, polluted, and dangerous, she said. “If this government really wants clean and sustainable energy, it should encourage investment in renewable and smart energies, not on nuclear energy,” she said. The use of renewable energy is rising globally, but Turkey has no legal or political goal to encourage it, said Greenpeace in its written statement.
Greenpeace worries that nuclear energy, the costs of which are very high, will be paid for by the state, that is to say by the tax-payers, said the statement. Greenpeace also published a report saying that even though Turkey builds four or five nuclear reactors, they will meet less than 1 percent of the country’s primary energy needs in 2020. If there is no delay, the minimum cost of building four nuclear reactors is $16 billion “ half of Turkey’s annual health budget “ the report said.
Source: Turkish Daily News
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