Uncertainty over the safety of Ukraine’s war-torn nuclear power plants has rekindled concerns over a Russian nuclear power plant being built in an earthquake-prone area on Turkey’s southern coast, Cypriot activists said on Wednesday. Greeks and Turkish Cypriots.
Around 200 activists representing two dozen organizations from both sides of ethnically divided Cyprus converged inside the UN-controlled buffer zone that runs through the capital Nicosia. They sought to express their unease over the ongoing construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, located just 100 kilometers off the island nation’s northern coast.
Organizers said the annual event to commemorate the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that happened 36 years ago has taken on added urgency in light of safety concerns over Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, such as the largest plant nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, which was seized by Russia.
“The war in Ukraine has demonstrated that nuclear power plants are a source of great uncertainty for public safety,” said George Perdikis, former leader of the Green Party of Cyprus.
Activists have long argued that Akkuyu lies near an earthquake fault line and that a potentially powerful earthquake could cause a radioactive leak affecting Cyprus. Cyprus Geological Surveys Department said on Wednesday that a 4.7 magnitude earthquake near the island’s southwestern town of Paphos on Tuesday evening was felt as far away as Lebanon and Israel.
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Christina Nicolaou, head of environmental affairs for the left-wing AKEL party, said an accident at Turkey’s nuclear power plant following a natural disaster or a “deliberate act” would have huge repercussions for the region.
Turkish officials have said that the Akkuyu plant will cover about 10% of the country’s domestic energy needs. The first of four reactors should be operational next year. Russian state-owned Rosatom has a 99.2% stake in the project, the total cost of which is estimated at US$20 billion, according to the plant’s website.
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