JINHA

MERSİN – Women enviromentalists are continuing the fight against the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in the Mersin province of Turkey. Nuclear company officials laid the groundwork for the plant recently, despite Turkey-wide protests over the previous month.

The Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant first got its license in 1976, but it wasn't until Turkey and Russia signed an agreement in 2010 that the project started to become a reality. The nuclear plant will involve underwater construction that experts say is a dangerous one.Ads for the power plant and for nuclear power have appeared all over Turkey, showing smiling children and declaring that nuclear is the "new energy" of Turkey.Doctors have been quick to point out that nuclear waste poses the most serious health risks for children.

Dr. Ful Uğurhan is the chair of Mersin's Chamber of Medical Doctors and a member of the Anti-Nuclear Platform. Ful says that the environmental impact report that has been accepted for the plant is dishonest and that the construction of the plant is not legal.Ful has been involved in the ongoing legal case about the environmental impact reports. There is still no clarity on what will be done with the waste produced by the plant.

"If it stays here it's bad, and if it's transported elsewhere it's even worse," she said. She pointed to the high risks attendant to any accident involving nuclear waste, which are greater if the waste is to transported elsewhere.

Çilem Öz, who is running for Parliament with the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in the province, says the plant poses a health and safety risk to everyone in the region. The people in the region, deeply aware of the consequences of nuclear power at Chernobyl and Fukushima, have been struggling against the project for years.

(fk/cm)