In a statement today, the Cypriot Progressive Party of the Working People (AKEL) expresses its deep concern for the beginning of the construction of the nuclear plant in Akkuyu, Turkey.
The construction was launched yesterday April 3, with a ceremony attended by Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, as part of the agreement signed between Turkey and Russia in 2010, Russian State Nuclear Energy Agency Rosatom undertook the construction of the NPP in Turkey's southern province of Mersin.
"During the last years AKEL has warned about the serious environmental consequences that the installation of a nuclear power station will have just a few kilometres away from the coast of Kerynia" points out the Party's statement.
The statement also underlines that "nuclear power has proved how dangerous she can become. The victims of Chernobyl and Fukushima consist a daily reminder. An accident, or a leak, apart from environmental damage, will put in danger the lifes of thousands of citizens in the broader region of the Mediterranean".
"On this occasion, we repeat our general position against the construction of nuclear plants and the need for the gradual elimination of the existing ones" writes the statement.
