Anti-nuclear protests against ‘positive EIA’ report given for Sinop nuclear power plant
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The court has dismissed the lawsuit seeking to cancel the "positive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)" report given for the Sinop Nuclear Power Plant planned to be constructed in Sinop.
The Sinop Anti-Nuclear Platform made a press statement about the issue in İnceburun, where the plant is to be constructed, yesterday (April 25).
İlker Şahin, the spokesperson for the platform, read out the statement for the press and reminded the public of the Chernobyl accident that happened 36 years ago today, recalling that clouds of radioactive pollution affected several countries, including Turkey, in its aftermath.
Şahin underlined that hundreds of thousands of children were born with disabilities as a result of this disaster and the incidence of cancer increased: "Between the years of 1990 and 2000, the rate of cancer increased by 40 percent in Belarus. According to the estimates of the World Health Organization, over 50 thousand children living in Gomel had thyroid cancer."
Stressing that abortions, premature births and infant mortality rates also increased strikingly, Şahin said that 350 thousand people who used to live near the reactor had to flee their homes for the rest of their lives.
According to the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) data cited by İlker Şahin, 47.9 percent of the deaths in Hopa district, which was affected most by the disaster in Chernobyl, were as a result of cancer.
Emphasizing that they do not know based on what the positive EIA report is granted for the nuclear power plant to be constructed in Sinop, Şahin said that it was a "partial, deliberate and political decision."
"This mindset, this decision cannot be accepted before history; it has already been condemned by science, law and consciences," said Şahin, underlining that their struggle against nuclear power will continue.
What happened?
Works began for the Sinop Nuclear Power Plant in İnceburun in 2017. The Abalı Village, where 2 thousand people used to live, was evacuated for the project. Sinop NPP was the second projectized nuclear power plant in Turkey after the one in Mersin in southern Turkey.
The Samsun 3rd Administrative Court dismissed the lawsuit seeking to cancel the positive EIA report for the Sinop nuclear power plant project on April 9, 2022. Even though the Japan-based company which will launch the project has withdrawn, the EIA process continued and the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change gave a positive EIA report in September 2020. (TY/EMK/SD)