Nuclear Awareness Project
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Update: Read the July 25, 2000 media release: 'Turkey Cancels Akkuyu Nuclear Plant'
 

LETTERS TO PRIME MINISTER CHRÉTIEN REQUESTED
OPPOSING PROPOSED CANDU REACTOR SALES TO TURKEY

Memo to:
Concerned Citizens

From:
Dave Martin, Research Director, Nuclear Awareness Project

TURKISH ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION (TAEK) COMMENTS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND LAUNCHES AMBITIOUS NUCLEAR PROGRAM

In 1999, the Turkish Electricity Generation and Transmission Company (TEAS - - a state-owned utility) is expected to make a long-awaited announcement about the winner of a bidding process to build a nuclear power station at Akkuyu Bay on the Mediterranean. Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) is bidding to sell two 700 MW CANDU reactors to Turkey at a cost of about $4 billion (CDN). It is bidding against a German/French consortium (Nuclear Power International - NPI - is a cooperative venture between Siemens/KWU and the French national nuclear company Framatome). The third consortium bidding is a partnership of Westinghouse and Mitsubishi.

Two recent articles of interest follow. The first is from the ANKA News Agency (ANKA is a private Turkish news agency that has operated for more than 25 years). The first article, from June 8, 1998, "Atom Bomb Report to Parliament" is on the annual report of TAEK (the Turkish Atomic Energy Commission), which was recently submitted to the Turkish Parliament (see "Enclosure #1"). TAEK is the official government agency that has a conflicting mandate to both regulate and promote nuclear power in Turkey.

On June 9, 1998, the intellectual newspaper Cumhuriyet ran a front page article with the title "Atom Bomb Report to Parliament". The daily newspaper Radical ran an article with the title "Atom Bomb Dropped on Parliament" quoting the ANKA report as its source. These reports indicate that TAEK is making little attempt to disguise its interest in nuclear weapons development.

The second article is from the Anatolia News Agency (an official government agency), dated June 21, 1998 (Enclosure #2). The article indicates that TAEK is launching a research program to develop a made-in-Turkey reactor to be completed by 2001, and that it aims to establish a nuclear fuel facility based on a thorium fuel cycle. Turkey does not have its own uranium, but it does have reserves of thorium. Natural thorium is almost entirely thorium-232, which is not a fissile material, but it is Îfertile', and can be transmuted by neutron bombardment in a reactor into uranium-233, which is fissile. The CANDU reactor could be made to operate as a near-breeder reactor on a thorium fuel cycle (breeder reactors produce more fissile material than they use, but they have not proven successful).

The desire to develop an indigenous thorium fuel cycle may be another indicator that Turkey wishes to avoid the safeguards against nuclear weapons proliferation that would be attached to the purchase of foreign uranium.

Translation of these articles was by Ms. Isil Esendir and Ms. Aynur Sungur Tuncer.

[Enclosure #1]

ANKA News Agency June 8, 1998

ATOM BOMB REPORT TO PARLIAMENT

In the annual report submitted to the Turkish National Assembly - State Owned Utilities Commission by the Turkish Atomic Energy Commission, it is stated that: "Nuclear technology makes our country honorable and strong, because nuclear technology consists of strategic and economic components."

Turkey is compared in the report to Pakistan and India who tested atomic bombs. It is stated that Turkey is one of the world's pioneers of nuclear technology and that in the last 25 years, the Turkish Atomic Energy Commission has had 21 chairmen, but the directors of the Indian and Pakistani atomic energy agencies have remained for their lifetimes.

ANKA (Ankara) - In the annual report submitted to the Turkish National Assembly - State Owned Utilities Commission by Turkish Atomic Energy Commission, it is stated that nuclear technology will make the country strategically powerful. The was prepared during the chairmanship of the former head Mehmet Ergin. After touching on the importance of nuclear technology as a solution for the energy crisis and the issue of radiation risk, the report states:

"Nuclear technology is progressive, and it brings advanced, sensitive technology into the country. So it increases the competitiveness of local industry both nationally and internationally. It provides for the training of good quality and well-educated manpower in the country. It makes the country honorable and powerful, and it causes the country to advance one step further because nuclear technology has scientific, technological, strategic and economic components."

In the report it is stated that Turkey is surrounded by nuclear power plants, constructed by the former Soviet Union in Armenia, Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria which lack security systems. For this reason RESA (Radiation Early Alarm System) has been put in place.

In the report it is stated that [Turkish] political parties have threatened the Turkish Atomic Energy Commission and the chairmen and directors have been changed frequently. By contrast, in India, which tested atomic bombs, the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission served for his lifetime, and the chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission has served for more than 20 years.

THEY WILL PRODUCE HYDROGEN BOMBS

In the report it is stated that, despite Turkey being among the first countries (except for some developed countries) to start work on nuclear power, it could not make progress. The report continued:

"India constructed reprocessing plants by itself. Only a few countries have these plants that reprocess nuclear fuel, the transfer of which is strictly forbidden. In the last years, India has been in a race with developed countries. In addition to this, on the one hand it is aiming to double its nuclear power capacity, and on the other hand to continue to test atomic bombs and endeavoring to develop hydrogen bombs."

AFRICA HAS REACHED US

After indicating that since 1997 Turkey has started research and development projects on local nuclear power plants, and local nuclear fuel and thorium fuel development, the report continued:

"For 41 years Turkey has wasted time with only the application of nuclear techniques to different areas. African countries have also been able to do this. The projects that will cause Turkey to go one step further are not the applications of nuclear techniques to different areas but the nuclear technology itself, which is a sensitive and advanced technology. If the Turkish Atomic Energy Commission is not threatened from either inside or outside the country, there are personnel with the know-how to realize these projects. However the salaries of scientists are lower than those of Government officials from the Personnel Department."

end of the bulletin

[Enclosure #2]

Anatolia News Agency June 21, 1998

-TAEK STARTS RESEARCH TO DESIGN TURKISH REACTOR

-THE PROJECT WILL BE COMPLETED IN 2001, 1.1TRILLION TL WILL BE INVESTED

- AIM IS TO USE THE RICH THORIUM MINES OF TURKEY IN THE NPP'S [Nuclear Power Plants], RESEARCH IS INITIATED TO ACHIEVE ENRICHMENT TECHNOLOGY .

The Turkish Atomic Energy Commission (TAEK) which is in Turkey the authority of nuclear energy and science has entered 1998 with great projects.

TAEK has started research to design a Turkish reactor.

TAEK, which once had the capability of producing nuclear technology, kept silent after losing its trained personnel, and as nuclear power plants were again put onto the agenda, TAEK started the process of reconstruction.

According to the information given by Emin Ozbas, the Co-director of TAEK, the utility initiated the project of developing a Turkish nuclear reactor and developing nuclear fuel technology with the goal of achieving full scale nuclear technology in Turkey.

On one hand, TAEK continues an intensive education program and struggles to regain previous knowledge. On the other hand, TAEK is pushing to move the technical experience of the small Cekmece research reactor [N.B. See background note below - D. Martin] in Istanbul forward to a higher level.

NUCLEAR PROJECTS

Next to this research TAEK emphasizes research for local technology and will spend a budget of 1.1 trillion TL [Turkish Lira] up to 2001 for the research project on a made-in-Turkey nuclear reactor.

TAEK is working on another project to develop nuclear fuel technology, and will spend 175 billion TL for this project which is planned to be completed next year.

TAEK has also started research on the enrichment of thorium which can be used as nuclear fuel and which is found in Turkey in rich deposits. The research work for enrichment of the element thorium will be finished next year.

NUCLEAR FUEL FACILITY IS PLANNED

Running parallel to the other research, the construction of a nuclear fuel facility is planned. For these facilities which have a project cost of 3 trillion 800 billion TL, a foreign credit in the amount of 2 trillion 130 million will be used.

Being in close connection and technical co-operation with the Turkic states in Asia which have experience with nuclear power plants, TAEK has started various projects for the use of nuclear technology in industry, mining, agriculture, energy, health, environmental protection and in scientific research.

Nuclear materials are already used in hospitals; for the improvement of animal breeding and to improve fertility; for sterilization; to give foodstuffs a longer period shelf life; to cultivate plants with greater disease resistance and hardiness; with the aim of harvesting crops more than once a year; in sensitive measurements and analysis; in the service of quality control; and in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

end

Background Note on Cekmece TR-2 Reactor

Construction began in August 1959 on Turkey's first research reactor ÷ a pool-type reactor at the site of the Cekmece Nuclear Research and Training Centre (known by the Turkish acronym CNAEM), which was formally established in 1961 on the shore of Kucuk Cekmece Lake, outside of Istanbul. The 1 MW reactor, known as TR-1 (Turkish Reactor-1) went critical in 1962 and was shut down in September 1977, reportedly for financial reasons. It was upgraded to 5 MW by the Belgian company Belgonucleare in 1980. The upgraded 5 MW reactor, known as TR-2, first went critical in December 1981, and was shut down on August 5, 1995, allegedly for rehabilitation..

In 1997, environmental researchers revealed that the reason for the shutdown was a serious accident in March 1993 involving a large release of cooling water contaminated with cobalt-60 into Kucuk Cekmece Lake. The accident was kept secret by TAEK and the government. On June 24, 1998, Turkish President Suleyman Demirel took part in a ceremony for the re-opening of the TR-2 reactor at CNAEM.

end

Nuclear Awareness Project
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E-mail: nucaware@web.net

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proliferation and Turkey

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