Please find below a letter from the American Hellenic Media Project as published in the November 1999 issue of World Press Review

WORLD PRESS REVIEW

November 1999

Letters

Nuclear Wake-Up Call

October's VIEWPOINT on Turkey's devastating earthquake failed to mention that U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson was in Istanbul advocating on behalf of a U.S. consortium seeking to build Turkey's first nuclear power plant less than 15 miles from an active fault line.

The destruction wreaked by the recent earthquakes in Greece and Turkey should serve as a grisly wake-up call to the dangers of building a nuclear reactor in one of the world's most seismically unstable regions.

Experts have warned of an "unacceptable level of risk" being taken, and prominent Turkish scientist Tolga Yarman cautioned, "Turkey is not ready for nuclear power." Earthquake forecasts determined that the consequences of a nuclear accident would be "horrific—millions of people in Turkey and surrounding areas [would be] hit with disabling and lethal radiation" including Israel and Cyprus. Many are also concerned about the likelihood that Turkey, an already highly militarized state, would use this sensitive technology for a nuclear weapons program.

PHILLIP D. SPYROPOULOS
New York, New York
Spyropoulos is executive director of the
American Hellenic Media Project.