Energy, Iran Spur Turkey’s Revival of Nuclear Plans

Turkey is reviving its long-deferred quest for nuclear power, pressed both by serious energy shortfalls within its own borders and by strident nuclear ambitions in neighboring Iran that threaten to upset a regional balance of power.

“The rise in oil prices and the need for multiple sources of energy make our need for nuclear energy an utmost priority,” Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said last month in announcing plans to build as many as five atomic energy plants. The first, to be located on the Black Sea at Sinop, would come on line in 2012 and ease Turkey’s costly dependence on natural gas, 90 percent of which arrives by pipeline from Russia and Iran.

..”Turkey’s state policy is always: Play the game within the rules,” said Mustafa Kibaroglu, a nuclear proliferation expert at Bilkent University in Ankara. But “if Iran goes nuclear, then who knows?”

In the past, Kibaroglu saw merit in a domestic nuclear industry for Turkey. In a recent interview, however, he argued for alternatives, including improvements to the electrical grid, which leaks as much as a quarter of the power it produces.

“I’m not supporting Turkey’s nuclear energy program anymore,” he said, “because I’m not clear about what the real intention is. Let’s put it that way.”

Washington Post