NIRS at it again

["Aaron Oakley" <aoakley@receptor.pharm.uwa.edu.au>]

>January 27, 2000
>
>Dear Friends,
>
>Enclosed is a news release from the Nuclear Information and Resource
Service (NIRS) in Washington DC regarding opposition to the
Westinghouse/Mitsubishi bid to build the Akkuyu nuclear plant in Turkey.
>
>Any concerned citizens in the United Kingdom should remember that the
Westinghouse nuclear division was bought by British Nuclear Fuels Limited
(BNFL) in March 1999, and a reported one third of BNFL's income now comes
from Westinghouse's reactor fuel manufacturing and reactor servicing
business.
>
>For more information and to send your Akkuyu protests by e-mail...
>
>http://www.diaspora-net.org/nuclear/emailtofax.htm
NB (WE HAVE ADAPTED THE LETTER FROM THIS PAGE - see below)
>
>Best wishes,
>
>Dave Martin
>Nuclear Awareness Project (Canada)
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>NEWS FROM NIRS
>Nuclear Information and Resource Service
>1424 16th Street NW, #404, Washington, DC 20036
>202.328.0002; fax: 202.462-2183; nirsnet@nirs.org; www.nirs.org
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- January 27, 2000
>
>Contact:
>Michael Mariotte (Executive Director, NIRS) 202-328-0002
>Dave Martin ( Research Director, Nuclear Awareness Project, Ontario,
Canada) 905-852-0571
>
>61 ORGANIZATIONS ASK CLINTON/GORE TO RECONSIDER SUPPORT FOR TURKISH
>REACTOR, EVEN AS ADMINISTRATION STEPS UP LOBBYING ON BEHALF OF NUCLEAR
INDUSTRY
>
>Sixty-one organizations and several dozen individuals today asked President
Clinton and Vice-President Gore to reconsider their support for a
controversial nuclear power project in Turkey, that would be built at a
seismically suspect site at Akkuyu. The Turkish government is expected to
announce soon-possibly as early as Tuesday, February 1- its choice of a
reactor vendor to build what would be the nation's first atomic power
plant..
>
>According to the mainstream Turkish daily Milliyet, Vice-President Al Gore
wrote a letter to the Turkish energy minister in December in support of a
bid for the project made by a consortium led by Westinghouse (now owned by
British Nuclear Fuels, Ltd.) and Mitsubishi. A January 22, 2000 report in
Milliyet said that U.S. Ambassador Mark Parris also has been lobbying Turkey
to choose the Westinghouse consortium -- a lobbying effort that included
meetings with the nation's President and Deputy Prime Minister. In addition,
the U.S. Export-Import Bank already has promised $40 million in loans for
Westinghouse and Bechtel (which is in a consortium led by Atomic Energy of
Canada Ltd., or AECL) for preliminary work on the project.
>
>There are two other bidders for the proposed project: AECL is offering its
heavy water CANDU reactor technology and another consortium is led by
Germany's Siemens Corporation. However, the German government recently said
it will not allow export credits under its HERMES program for the Siemens
bid, because of the project's questionable economics.
>
>The letter sent today to President Clinton, Vice-President Gore and U.S.
Export-Import Bank Chairman James Harmon, cited four key reasons for the
U.S. to end its support for the project. These include the earthquake risk
at Akkuyu. The U.S. Geological Survey has identified 31 earthquakes within
60 miles of the site just since 1973. The Turkish government has refused to
publicly release copies of its own geological reports on the site.
>
>Also mentioned in the letter are concerns over nuclear weapons
proliferation, human rights abuses in Turkey and the fact that nuclear power
is an inappropriate energy option for that nation.
>
>Copies of the letter and basic translations of the Milliyet article are
available on NIRS' website, www.nirs.org
>
>--30--
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Nuclear Awareness Project
>P.O. Box 104
>Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada L9P 1M6
>
>Tel/Fax 905-852-0571
>E-mail: nucaware@web.net
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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