THE MIAMI HERALD

Friday, September 17, 1999
Section: Editorial
Edition: Final
Page: 26A
Memo: THE READERS' FORUM

Nuclear tremors

Your reports have ignored the alarming fact that U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson was in Istanbul during Turkey's devastating earthquake representing an American-led consortium seeking to build Turkey's first nuclear-power plant just 13 miles from an active fault line.

Experts worldwide have warned of an enormous environmental risk being taken by Turkey if the plant is built. The proposed reactors have raised yet another fear. In 1981, Israeli jets bombed Iraq's Osirak reactor to avert an Iraqi nuclear-weapons program.

Now concerns are being raised about the likelihood of Turkey, already a highly militarized state, using the acquisition of this sensitive technology for a nuclear-weapons program.

A nuclear Turkey would guarantee an arms race in one of the world's most unstable regions.

P.D. SPYROPOULOS
Executive Director, American Hellenic Media Project
New York City, N.Y.